Bald Eagles and Avian Flu
Our national symbol, the bald eagle, is suffering from a spiking death rate from avian flu. As much as I love and worry about this magnificent bird, it is the avian flu part that keeps me up nights. Several years ago, my book club chose The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson as one of our selections. It is a non-fiction book about the search for the source of the cholera epidemic in London in 1854. It is an excellent book, and, like most good authors, Johnson gives us not just historical facts, but their relevance to our modern world. He also gives us lots to think about. In the last chapter of The Ghost Map Johnson talks about why workers in the poultry industry in Asia are given flu shots. The shots don’t keep them from getting avian flu, the shots keep them from getting the basic, human influenza. Why? Because doctors and scientists want to make sure that there is no way for the deadly avian flu to mutate into human influenza because human flu, while not so deadly a