Dr. Paul McDonald’s recent article “Bird Flu: Why Modern Medicine Won’t Save Us,” explains why everything we think we know about bird flu is wrong. The ignorant are unprepared; the unprepared are unprotected. To prepare for the ever-threatening bird flu pandemic, McDonald offers seven myths we should examine:
Myth #1: We have anti-viral agents that cure the flu.
Actually, there are only four antiviral agents. Two are not working well on bird flu, and two are in short supply.
Myth #2: We have antibiotics that cure the flu.
Antibiotics treat infections, not viruses.
Myth #3: We have optimal equipment to treat the flu.
The Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome that accompanies flu is treated with mechanical respiration. During a normal flu season almost all U.S. respiratory machines are in use. During a pandemic the machines would be in short supply.
Myth #4: We have enough protective equipment for hospital personnel.
“[D]isposable gloves, N95 face masks, gowns, face shields or goggles, head caps, and shoe covers” are in short supply due to foreign manufacture and just-in-time delivery.
Myth #5: We have optimal hospital space to treat the flu.
Flu pandemics create hospital surges. Flu treatment requires isolation. Picture a functioning hospital on a normal, non-pandemic day. There’s not enough space to give each patient an isolated room.
During the coming pandemic, there won’t be enough beds in hospitals for all the sick people with bird flu.
Makeshift “hospitals” will have to be established outside of existing hospitals to care for all the ill patients.
Myth #6: We will invent a vaccine to prevent bird flu.
The vaccines under development that come closest to being effective require two shots, making an already iffy compliance profile that much sketchier.
Myth #7: Medical personnel will volunteer to help.
Medical personnel will stay home. We already have a nursing shortage. During the SARS outbreak in Toronto health care workers resigned rather than be exposed to that disease.
McDonald says:
In a sense, the next pandemic could very well be analogous to the Hurricane Katrina situation, with mass confusion, lack of resources, visible dead bodies, acts of cowardice and acts of heroism, financial disaster, panic, and every emotion possible–nothing like we are used to witnessing in America; shocking.
Read the full text here: Bird Flu: Why Modern Medicine Won’t Save Us
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