I was expecting a lot more, but this movie had MADE FOR TV written all over it. At the end when they heard of a breakout in Angola, the black helicopters would have been flying and the smell of napalm would have been in the air...although they will probably choose to use a few "tactical" nukes if that ever happened.

One of the things I remember most vividly about 9/11 is when I was scanning the UHF because the regular TV channels were down, and then I got the Spanish station broadcasting out of the Empire State Building. THEY showed the second plane hitting, which looked surreal and cheesey, and then they switched to a BBC feed which showed people jumping out the windows and splattering to the ground.

The folks at ABC went fot the Spanish station shots rather than the gritty BBC look...I should have watched "The Unit" instead.

I think this is more of the same, ABC and other TV networks would rather go for the old the sky is falling routine and sensationalism. Which is why they aren't the first place I go to for news or anything else for that matter.

I wondered when the "experts" would do a backflip on the Bird flu. It was the UN that said 150million could die, the UK who made an exclusion zone of several miles around a dead swan, the UK who said they could be carrying the dead away in trucks.

Now that someone makes a film that reflects the official paranoia those same officials can't wait to condemn the film producers for creating unecessary panic. Such blatant hypocracy leaves me dumbfounded.

At least the film producers have not callously diverted much needed funding away from AIDS, malnutrition, water-bourne diseases and diarrhea in order to put themselves in the spot light and tour the world on emergency seminars.

Sorry the link for the DaVinci Code didn't make it in the last post here it is again.
http://www.exposingthedavincicode.com/

Ok People LISTEN UP!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't want people to take this MOVIE as fact. Neither do I desire for them to take it as "never could happen" I realize there are always a lot of "What IF ssss" But please bear in mind the following facts. (NOTE this Post is rather Long but it has a lot of REAL Facts.) Please take the time to read all of it.

Consider this:
HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria kill 6 million people every year; nearly 2 million deaths are caused by TB.

Yet, TB is curable, but it still kills 5000 people every day!

TB is a disease of poverty; virtually all TB deaths occur in the developing world, affecting mostly young adults in their most productive years. TB especially affects the most vulnerable, such as the poorest and malnourished.

TB is a leading killer among HIV-infected people with weakened immune systems; a quarter of a million TB deaths are HIV-associated — most of them in Africa
Global TB incidence is still growing at 1% every year because of the rapid increase in Africa; intense control efforts are helping incidence fall or stabilize in other regions.

2 billion people — one third of the world's population — are infected with TB bacilli, the microbes that cause TB. 1 in 10 people infected with TB bacilli will become sick with active TB in their lifetime; people with HIV are at a much greater risk

TB is contagious and spreads through the air; if not treated, each person with active TB infects on average 10 to 15 people each year.

TB is a worldwide pandemic; though the highest rates per capita are in Africa (29% of all TB cases), half of all news cases are in 6 Asian countries — Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines.

Almost 9 million new TB cases occurred in 2004 — 80% of them in 22 countries.

Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) is a form of TB that does not respond to the standard drug treatment. MDR-TB is present in virtually all 109 countries recently surveyed by WHO and partners.

PLEASE LISTEN TO THE FOLLOWING COMMENTS:

• The ABC Movie “Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America” is a movie, not a documentary. It is a work of fiction designed to entertain and not a factual accounting of a real world event.

• There is no influenza pandemic in the world at this time.

• Also, it is important to remember that H5N1 avian influenza is almost exclusively a disease of birds. The H5N1 virus has not yet appeared in the U.S.

• Should the H5N1 virus appear in the U.S., it does not mean the start of a pandemic.

• An additional point to remember is that the next influenza pandemic could be substantially less severe than what the movie depicts or that occurred in 1918. For example, the influenza pandemics of 1957/58 and 1968/69 caused so much less illness and death than did the 1918/19 pandemic that many Americans at that time did not distinguish them from seasonal influenza and were unaware that a pandemic was underway.

• While the movie does serve to raise awareness about avian and pandemic flu, we hope it will inspire preparation – not panic. There are steps individuals, families and communities can take to prepare. You can keep a supply of food and medicines on hand in case you have to stay home, you can practice good public health measures like frequent hand washing and staying home when sick. There is good information available on .

• The film does depict scenarios that could unfold should a severe pandemic ever develop, including limited availability of antivirals and vaccines as well as the potential for disruption of supplies, medicines and other essential services.

• The film also illustrates the expected months-long delay in developing an effective vaccine against a pandemic strain of influenza once it emerges. This is why, at the President’s request, the Congress approved funding for the Department of Health and Human Services to make significant financial investments to improve the technology for vaccine development and to build up our domestic vaccine production capacity, to ensure more rapid availability of vaccine for the population in a pandemic.

• The film highlights an important aspect of planning – individual and community planning and cooperation that will be so vital to sustaining communities and neighborhoods during an extended wave of an influenza pandemic. HHS has developed an extensive set of planning documents, including planning checklists for businesses, schools, health care providers, community organizations and states as well as an individual and family planning guide. All of these materials are available at www.pandemicflu.gov.

• While the H5N1 virus has not yet appeared in the U.S., and there is no

Trust me. The potential of a pandemic soon or in the near future is real. The scientists and public health officials are not making this up. However, as with anything, prevention and knowledge will help everyone; every person should make it thier business to keep informed about the local planning and prevention efforts that state, city, town and federal official are engaged in. The movie may be a sensationalistic interpretation of communicable diseases...however, it can happen.

Think about the data: about 2/3 of people that have gotten infected by the virus die.

I just read the WHO statistics - if there are 203 confirmed cases, and 113 confirmed deaths, how do you get "2/3 of people that have gotten infected by the virus die"? My math skills aren't top-notch, but that would appear to be over 50%.

I'm not an alarmist, either - and most of us don't come into close contact with poultry. I'll be far more alarmed when it jumps from human to human. It's still cause for concern.

That said, the movie is out to earn viewers and money for advertisers. It's a timely topic, and a ploy that's likely to succeed. Watching it just may prove cathartic, if it's really over-the-top. I don't recall that "The Day After" caused any particular panic. Made people think - and that's a good thing - but didn't make them run screaming into the streets or anything.

Hey folks,

Avian bird flu is a total crock -- gov't inspired scare tactics, same old propaganda.

Don't sweat the bird flu. It's probably more dangerous to talk on your cell phone while driving. If you like to worry, worry about that.

http://barnesworld.blogs.com/barnes_world/

Hank Barnes

I am not sure what to think at this point, maybe that is a dangerous place to be at. I have read, and seen articles and have done my own research on the bird flu. For now, I am at a watch and wait sort of speak attitude. What can we do about it? How can we avoid it? Protection, has anyone given us any ideas or information? I have decided we will no longer be eatting chickens, and poultry for a while. We will stick to beef and what not. Stray cats (I have told my children NOT to go near them (they eat/catch wild birds). I guess, the only thing left is to so as I have always been doing. "Wash your hands." I think the most scary part of all of this is that we have children. I am sure concerned about myself, and my husband but I am more concerned about my children. I don't think that we will be watching the movie because I know how upset that my 3 girls will be. They don't need to be caught up in the media's rage about this. Yes, it's serious. But added more stress will only cause people to get sick and have weaked immunity. We all know what high level stress does to you. Probably just about more damage then the bird flu will ever do.
So in a calm, collective and watchful manner I will face what many of the human race will undergo. Making plans, saving money, doing all the "responsible things" to do to get prepared.

That is all we can really do, is wait and be prepared.
It's better to be prepared then to be unware.

I think that ABC should be ashamed to get involved with such scare tactics. Don't we have enough to worry about? Avian Flu is very real and there are many people who will be panic stricken after watching this movie. And, many people aren't intelligent enough to sort out what is fact and what is fiction. I, myself, won't be watching this movie. And, I'm very disappointed and disgusted with ABC and Disney for presenting such a movie to the gullible public!