Worried About Bird Flu? Welcome to The Party, Pal. You're Late.
Everyone's talking about bird flu now.
It's an evolving situation. Right now, the mainstream news media is desperately trying to catch up on a story that's been happening for two years now. It would be funny if so many lives weren't at stake. The public reaction? Look at the discourse: Is it in pasteurized milk? Is it in hamburgers? Is it in hot wings? Do we have a vaccine? Does it work? Is there enough?
Apparently, the most recent official word is that 1 in 5 milk samples is now testing positive for avian flu, but pasteurization is killing it. Officials are trying to spin this as a good thing.
Well, okay...
I've noticed something about the way the news media covers these things. Whether it's bird flu or another unfolding disaster, they do the same thing. They design these stories now to simultaneously trigger a fear response, only to dismiss that fear and assure everyone that everything's okay "for now." They conveniently omit or downplay any proactive measure tha…