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For most of you who read Shanghaiist, there is really no reason to worry about actually being in any situation where you are likely to catch bird flu from a sick bird of some type. You are lucky enough to be able to just follow some basic common sense guidelines: don't eat raw poultry products, wash your hands regularly and don't keep close company with bunches of birds. (Shanghaiist wishes such simple statements would suffice in panicked-client-demanded-reports on bird flu for our real job.)
If you happen to be involved in any sort of business related to poultry products, now would probably be a good time to be thinking of diversifying, divesting ... or coming up with some really amazingly clever advertising to convince people that eating chicken is still conceivable even when bird flu is spreading like wildfire throughout the world in a global pandemic:
KFC will have television commercials ready to reassure customers that its chicken is safe to eat if there is a bird flu outbreak."As our investors would hope, we are being proactive in preparing the materials in the event that we need to use them," Jonathan Blum, spokesman for KFC's parent, Yum Brands Inc., said of the spots expected to be shot soon.
Shanghaiist is curious to know exactly how KFC would decide when is the right time to pull these works of advertising magic off the shelf, and where these ads would air. The story indicates the ads only apply to the American market, but Shanghaiist seems to recall reading that the Asian markets are really the driving force behind the fried chicken chain. KFC has already posted significantly lower sales growth for the month of October in China, a number that we can't imagine is going to improve any with the rash of outbreaks throughout the country in the past few weeks. The company's stock has also fallen amid bird flu fears.
Shanghaiist wonders what kind of amazing advertising could possibly help KFC. Generally, logic and reasoning don't coincide with words like "pandemic" and "outbreak." We can't imagine people are going to be inclined to take a jaunt to their local KFC, regardless of where the chicken comes from or whether or not the chain claims to be able to fry the virus right out of those greasy, crispy chicken wings.
Related:
Why can't the Chinese press report on bird flu properly? (Danwei)
The 'True' Statistics About Avian Flu In China (ESWN)
Bird flu kills woman as Chinese suspect 'cured' (Irish Examiner)
China has its own version of bird flu drug (Reuters)
Also on Shanghaiist:
Shanghai might start producing Tamiflu
Paranoia will destroy ya
Sole Search: Bird flu cleaning Shanghai’s shoes
OK, now we’re worried about the bird flu
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add to reddit
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McDonalds is already running damage control commercials vouching for the quality and safety of their beef and other ingredients as well. It's a refreshing departure from the sickening days of "I'm Lovin' It".
From the South China Morning Post:
Villages of death are not on the official list
Dead poultry lies along the roadside in the northeast province of Liaoning . Ask local residents where the outbreaks are located and they point to a number of villages, none of which are on the list of those confirmed to have been hit: the 18 villages in Heishan county, two in Jinzhou and one in Fuxin.
Although Heishan county is at the epicentre of the bird flu outbreaks in Lioaning, the disease seems to have followed the traffic of the main highway to nearby towns.
Between Heishan county and Chaoyangsi village in Daban town in Fuxin, the government has sealed off an area with a radius of at least 5km surrounding Furong town.
The outbreak in Furong has not been mentioned in official reports, but a man guarding the entrance to the town said the area was sealed off roughly at the same time as Heishan. "Over a hundred thousand poultry" have been culled, he said, adding a dire warning not to go into the town as several people had died.
A man guarding another checkpoint on a road leading to Furong said he had heard that human blood samples were being sent to laboratories to see if they tested positive for H5N1.
"The government has stopped cars from entering Furong town and it has even shut down the market place in town," said one farmer.
Farmers from at least two villages in Furong town said all poultry had been culled about 10 days ago, but some cockerels could still be seen running around.
These villagers said they had not heard about any human bird flu cases but said the outbreak among poultry had been severe.
By the side of the road in Jizhong village, in Wuhuangchi town, dozens of dead chickens and ducks lie where they died. The road leads to another infected area, Mogutu village in Pingandi.
In villages where until now there has not been an outbreak, villagers are keeping their poultry penned in.
But in Mogutu village, where the outbreak was first reported by the South China Morning Post, more than 10,000 chickens have been culled. Villagers said at least one third of the chickens had fallen sick.
In Wangfu county near Fuxin city, about 8,000 chicken were culled in a small outbreak, according to local residents.
Both outbreaks in Wangfu and Mogutu were not mentioned in government reports.
A woman in Daban village, where all poultry was culled because it is within a radius of 3km from Chaoyangsi village, blamed unlicensed vaccines for causing the outbreak.
In Mogutu village, farmers said local officials only started to vaccinate their chickens on the first day after the outbreak began. A problem for the villages where the outbreaks have gone unreported by the government is that they are less likely to be compensated in the same way as those areas that have been recognised as trouble spots.
In Chaoyangsi village, where the outbreak was highly publicised, all farmers were paid 10 yuan for a chicken, 12 yuan for a duck and 15 yuan for a goose according to the specifications outlined by the central government. But the farmers in Mogutu village and Furong town are unlikely to be as lucky.
While the outbreaks there go unacknowledged by the government, the farmers will receive no compensation for their loss of livelihood.