THE backlash was predictable. Clamour in the world’s media about the threat of H5N1 bird flu had been building up for months, and reached a climax when the virus arrived in western Europe. Now those stories are giving way to talk of scaremongering. “It’s still only a disease of birds,” goes the cry. “These people are trying to scare us to death over something that may never happen.”
In the UK, the backlash struck after several weeks of headline news about a dead swan with H5N1, and an outbreak of a related strain in chickens. In the US, this week…
