The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu

I s the threat of avian flu “the monster at our door” or, to use an alternative and zoologically mixed metaphor, a frightened chicken crying wolf? We need to know. Mike Davis The New Press, £12.99, pp 212 ISBN 1 59558 011 5 Rating: !Graphic1!Graphic2!Graphic3!Graphic4 Now, as throughout the past few decades, the health scare industry continues to cut dark swathes through the sunny fields of reason, evidence, and proportionality. The MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine, mercury in tooth fillings, listeria, mobile phones, microwave ovens, beef, coffee, electromagnetic fields, pesticide residues, and a score of other such items have clawed their way up the news agenda, basked in the media spotlight, then slipped back to their true level in the league table of environmental risk. The number of times that some of these items have made the return trip would lead one to believe they must have purchased a season ticket. In recent weeks, a few world-weary commentators have begun hinting that avian flu will soon be joining that … 1: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif 2: /embed/inline-graphic-2.gif 3: /embed/inline-graphic-3.gif 4: /embed/inline-graphic-4.gif