Im amazed that Americans at this point are really fairly
unconcerned about bird flu and mad cow disease, the Bryn Mawr
alumna confessed, noting that a drop in foreign sales of Tyson
chicken has depressed company stock.
While the
National Chicken Council
stresses that American poultry is safe to eat, the CNN anchors
failed to remind viewers of that fact. Guest panelist Allen Wastler
urged investors to wait until Tyson stock pounds down a little bit
more before snatching up cheaper shares, because people always eat
meat.
While Cafferty conceded that bird flu has killed fewer than 100
people in the world in the last three years, he warned thats not
to say it couldnt change tomorrow.
Yet the virus has not mutated to allow easy human-to-human
transmission, which would be necessary for a worst-case scenario
global pandemic.
In fact, only in rare circumstances that
are highly unusual in developed countries and unusual even in
undeveloped ones has the avian virus transferred from birds to
humans, wrote Dr. Elizabeth Whelan of the American Council on
Science and Health in a
Business & Media Institute commentary.
The Business & Media Institute has documented the medias hype of the bird
flu threat, particularly
CNN, which featured Columbia Universitys
Irwin Redlener
blaring warnings of a global pandemic yielding thousands of typhoid Marys in a country with 46 million Americans who dont have health
insurance.
CNN is hardly the medias lone pandemic
pyromaniac.
ABC
also fanned the flames of bird flu fear in a recent series on
Good Morning America and World News Tonight. Experts like Whelan
have been left out of much of the media coverage.
CNN Team Perplexed by Calm U.S. Public
March 20th, 2006 2:00 PM
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