Loads more stupidity on show in a 21 October 2005 article in Live Science –
Deadly Flu Will Reach U.S., Says Bird Migration Expert
Can’t say how much of this is attributable to woeful writing, and how much to the babblings of the supposed “expert”. Ah well, here goes:
No corner of the planet is immune, he said.
“By knowing the migratory patterns of birds and areas where species overlap while traveling between their breeding sites and winter grounds, one can predict precisely where problems will occur,” said Thomas Van’t Hof, an ornithologist at Wright State University in Ohio.
[This is untrue, as shown by outbreaks in HK 2002, east Asia 2003/2004, and north Asia/Europe this year.]
…
“The disease will probably end up in Africa this year,” Van’t Hof told LiveScience. “This is very likely to happen.”
[That was wrong. Hasn’t even ended up in migratory birds in other parts of Asia this autumn. So much for his notion that can “precisely” predict where wild birds will carry H5N1.]
It is harder to say when it will hop the Atlantic, he said, but that could happen next year, based on known migration patterns.
[and, err, why not suggest it will cross the Pacific? – there are people on lookout in Alaska, but no virus detected there]
The flying flu
Birds migrating south from China likely made contact with species in Bangladesh and Burma that were migrating west through southern India to Turkey, Van’t Hof explains. This is how the virus reached Russia and Eastern Europe.
[What a pile of poop regarding migration routes! Aaargh – is this the standard of “expert” the US has these days? No wonder so many people in US believe in intelligent design but not global warming.]
Birds from Europe are now flying south through Turkey. Soon, Africa will be exposed.
[More half-baked nonsense!]
Next spring, when infected birds migrate to the Arctic to nest, they will mix with birds from North America, Van’t Hof explained.
The virus is carried by waterfowl, which migrate long distances, increasingly the likelihood it will spread around the globe. How quickly it reaches North America will depend on how many infected birds mix with other fowl in nesting areas, and how close the nests are to each other. But eventually, it will spread.
[what evidence is there for waterfowl carrying H5N1? Potent evidence for them dying of it. But carrying?]
“There is really no populated area of the world that will be immune,” Van’t Hof said.
[Yikes – so we’re living in a B-grade horror movie!?]
Come on, Dr Van’t Hof, put on the dunce’s cap and stand over there in the corner. Don’t come out until you have something valid to say.