Evolution and the Bird Flu

There's good news for people who don't believe in evolution. Bird flu poses no serious health threat. The H5N1 virus only infects birds and humans who come into direct contact with infected birds. Some very rare cases of human to human infection are on record, but the virus obviously does not spread well from one human to another. Without evolution to interfere with things, that's the way things will stay. That's a good thing since the mortality rate of H5N1 in humans is about 50%. If the virus could mutate in such a way that it could spread from one human to another, that might be real cause for alarm.

The Center for Design Control (CDC), however, appears to believe it is a threat that we should prepare for it not only on a national scale, but on a global scale. Consult the CDC's bird flu fact sheet for more information. The CDC, however, seems to base their perception of a threat on the ability of the virus to evolve. If we were to actually adopt a theocratic government, that position would have to discouraged. Luckily for the world, even the Bush administration, who lovingly rewrote government reports to down play scientific evidence for global warming, is unwilling to suppress the CDC's position about evolving viruses. Though it would seem that their base, if they thought about it, might want it to be so.