Further Bird Flu Fears

With all these new outbreaks, it seems like probability and statistics could be against us at present, maybe its just a matter of time before an human to human/air-born transmittable mutation emerges from the wild.

Paschen, have you read Guns, Germs and Steel? It is the story of how learning to how to farm and do animal husbandry resulted in all the major plagues that we developed some immunity too but the natives of the New World hadn't. So, as soon as Columbus just showed up, the diseases making their way into the Ameindian community literally killed millions.

This is all just a continuation of the same process. We can't control this. We can only try to limit the damage.

If they were to do that, wouldn't there have to be an incredibly intense screening process so that people didn't carry it across with them?

- Damage limitation and screening process will probably lead to some sort of human quarantine zones.

Another H5N2 outbreak near Vancouver, bc. 12,000 to be culled, 43 properties in the area currently under quarantine.

Although it is true that exposure to certain diseases served to protect Europeans and helped them to build immunity against disease, the decimation of the indigenous peoples, as a result of disease, in the New World was not due solely to random chance meeting of Europeans with those in the New World. In some cases, the process of infecting the New World inhabitants was helped along.

It may be that the purposeful introduction of disease may have resulted in infecting and killing more people more quickly, not allowing time for the development of immunity.     

From Colonialwilliamsburg.org:

During Pontiac's uprising in 1763, the Indians besieged Fort Pitt. They burned nearby houses, forcing the inhabitants to take refuge in the well-protected fort. The British officer in charge, Captain Simeon Ecuyer, reported to Colonel Henry Bouquet in Philadelphia that he feared the crowded conditions would result in disease. Smallpox had already broken out. On June 24, 1763, William Trent, a local trader, recorded in his journal that two Indian chiefs had visited the fort, urging the British to abandon the fight, but the British refused. Instead, when the Indians were ready to leave, Trent wrote: "Out of our regard for them, we gave them two Blankets and an Handkerchief out of the Small Pox Hospital. I hope it will have the desired effect.

"It is not known who conceived the plan, but there's no doubt it met with the approval of the British military in America and may have been common practice. Sir Jeffery Amherst, commander of British forces in North America, wrote July 7, 1763, probably unaware of the events at Fort Pitt: "Could it not be contrived to Send the Small Pox among those Disaffected Tribes of Indians? We must, on this occasion, Use Every Stratagem in our power to Reduce them." He ordered the extirpation of the Indians and said no prisoners should be taken. About a week later, he wrote to Bouquet: "You will Do well to try to Innoculate the Indians by means of Blanketts as well as to try Every other method that can serve to Extirpate this Execrable Race."

I've re-tagged your story with "bird flu" so it will appear in the Bird Flu feature page within the Health channel.  Thanks for the update.