No Bird Flu on the Border. Repeat …
Mar 23rd, 2006 | By Michel Marizco | Category: General News
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A rumor of a dead duck in Nogales, Sonora, managed to drop grain prices in the United States as investors worried the much-hyped bird flu had finally come knocking at America’s front door.
The Mexican government was fast to quell the rumor, telling Reuters that the country is free of “highly pathogenic bird flu.”
I say much-hyped because the rumor, apparently started on a Brazilian Web site, managed to lower grain prices as U.S. traders anticipated a plunge in demand across the border. Dead birds don’t eat.
Grain prices apparently returned to normal Thursday morning.
Rumors are fascinating hobbies, aren’t they? The media as a whole seems to enjoy the game as much as 16-year-olds. Or 34-year-olds. Or 60-year-olds. Oh what the hell, rumors are fun.
Reuters reported that “more than” 100 people have died in seven countries since H5N1 was first discovered.
“More than” can be 101. Or it can be 500. Nobody really knows.
Meanwhile, definitive studies produce statistics 50 times as scary as the bird flu and we yawn.
In a report released last week, the Border Counties Coalition announced that if the U.S.-Mexico border were the 51st state, it would rank second in the nation for tuberculosis cases and third for people to die from hepatitis.
Hospitals along the border spend more than $800 million every year to provide emergency health care to the uninsured.
We really do yawn. When I stop to think about it, I don’t seem to care very much about tuberculosis. I don’t have it nor does anyone I know.
Then again, none of us have bird flu either.
The full report is available at http://www.bordercounties.org
– Michel Marizco
MM — Good to see this blog. Also covering border issues on my blog, primarily from an environmental perspective.
Out on T.O.N. and adjacent areas in Sonora yesterday. Scary what is happening.
New DHS detention center on T.O.N. shows inhumane treatment of migrants.
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Thanks a lot Daniel. Send me the address and I’ll link borderreporter.com to your site.
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dpatterson.blogspot.com
Daniel’s News & Views
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Here we have another instance in which the power of rumor oversteeps real examination of the facts on the ground. One would think that the markets would be changing their operational dynamics at time in which rumors about the terror and destruction are so readily available and so rarely justifiable.
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