Dr. Osterholm is the Man we need to speak and listen too!

Michael Oslterholm, M.D. head of the CDC is the person to talk to about H5N1 Avian Flu.

Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH

Dr. Osterholm is director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), associate director of the Department of Homeland Security's National Center for Food Protection and Defense (NCFPD), and professor in the School of Public Health, University of Minnesota. He is also a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences. In June 2005 Dr. Osterholm was appointed by Michael Leavitt, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to the newly established National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity. The dead cat in the Baltic may be do to not a DNA mutation but an infection that the cat got from eating the dead birds. I think this would be similar to the case with those humans that have died. Here's a great Interview with him on PBS last April

• DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM: If one takes a look at the 1918 pandemic that swept around the world, literally in weeks, and extrapolate those number of deaths then to what we might expect to see today, we could easily see 1.7 million deaths in the United States in one year and up to 360 million deaths worldwide
• DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM: How are we going to handle our everyday lives here in this country to make sure that we can deal with sick people? What do we do to assure that people continue to have a food supply once transportation is shut down? How will we manage the basic business of life when up to half the population may become ill and 5 percent of those will die? Those plans have to be made right now.
• The virus "is due to spin out of this bird population" that it currently infects, said Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research at the University of Minnesota. When it does, the fast pace of global transportation and trade is sure to carry it around the world in a matter of days if not hours, the officials said. And while most states have plans in place to deal with public-health emergencies, many of those plans have yet to be tested in real or simulated situations. If the pandemic were to hit today, said Osterholm, "I don't know what we could do about it except say, 'We're screwed.'" (Newsweek)

Thanks and Dominus Vobiscum!