Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Fowl foam

Breaking news out of Washington, DC. Not to worry, if the United States happens to have a bird flu outbreak (I personally think it's not going to happen), now we have a way to limit it. (Chicago Tribune)

The US Agriculture Department approved a firefighting foam to kill chickens quickly if an outbreak happens in commercial poultry. This is an alternative to using carbon dioxide gas because gassing involves more workers and potentially more exposure to infected birds. Of course, peta prefers gassing verses foaming fowl because it's more humane (They're chickens, not humans - Sheesh!)

Why am I mentioning this story? Just another example of the priorities of the federal government. I'm glad they are concerned about bird flu, but why can't I still get human flu vaccine for all of my patients? Why can't they still fix the broken Medicare system? Why are they're still 45 million uninsured Americans (some of them going overseas for their health care)?

Sorry for the rant. For those in the US, don't forget to vote today!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

With the H5N1 virus having been found in sparrows, swans, cats, dogs and other living creatures around the world, even a thouand Auschwitz camps for the poor old chickens, are going to be of any help.

The-Best-Bird-Flu-Blogs-team.
www.birdflubreakingnews.com

Dr. A said...

Whoa! I just checked out the bird flu breaking news site and found this post at the top of their blog news list. Didn't know this small little blog was on the radar map of anyone other than my blog friends. Thanks for the link.

Midwife with a Knife said...

Um... would the chicken equivalent of humane be chickane? Hm.....

Anonymous said...

I just wasn't worried about Bird Flu. I'll give you a list of what you should worry about if you want. You might want to just stick to shoe shopping

Anonymous said...

I agree. Fortunately, our patients have not had any problem getting the flu vaccine at their doctors' offices this year (so far). But about Medicare problems--aaargh. Somebody's going to have to go ask The Oracle on that one...

Anonymous said...

Just passin through. Thought we could swap links?

Sara's Varolo Village said...

Can I get some of this foam for the mouse in my basement?

I have a son who has reactive airways and the doctor says it would be majorly bad for him to get the flu. Yet, he won't give my husband and I flu shots.

There's logic for you,
Sara

Anonymous said...

Wow. Is that supposed to be comforting?

Bird on a Wire said...

I'm not all THAT knowledgeable in the medical field, but as far as I'm concerned, the whole bird flu thing was completely blown out of proportion...
It's so sad how difficult it is just to get a flu vaccine.