S R Ramanujan
Whatever we do, we either overdo it, or don’t do it at all. This is the criticism against the manner in which both the government and the media are reacting in India to the outbreak of avian flu, also known as "bird-flu". If you open the newspapers or watch television, we only see the poor birds, healthy or infected, being wrenched by hooded men in blues and thrown into a pit to be bulldozed or burnt. So far, some lakhs of birds could not land on the dining table, but on a death pit. If only these winged creatures have the voice, or a union they would have come out in a procession holding a placard asking humans "You reared us for your food; now why are you killing us to save yourselves". That is the irony. In either option, they are destined to be killed either for the man to feed himself or to save himself. India was number 2 in poultry export in the world and now, every country is chickening out. "No poultry from India" is the chant.
The question is did we overreact to the so-called fear of pandemic. It is a tricky question to answer because if we have not reacted, the criticism could have been the other extreme. We would have said the government was "sleeping" while the flu was spreading. Keeping such criticisms aside, the reality was both the government and the media confused the people with all sorts of statements out of panic and ironically asking the people not to panic. Definitely, the media, ever hungry for such stories, went overboard. Either anaesthetized birds in sacks were occupying the screen all through the day, or bureaucrats and experts were confusing the viewers from the television studios.
While the Health Secretary was enjoying a chicken leg (must be from a healthy bird) before the cameras to prove that chicken was still edible, Lalu was seen to be chickening out by banning chicken and eggs in the railway menu. Aviation Minister Praful Patel also did not want to take chances with a disease that shared its etymology with his portfolio. The birds were not lucky enough to fly with the Maharaja or his domestic counterpart. Of course, ever-ebullient TDP lieutenant and chief of Parliamentary Food Committee Yerran Naidu was in his elements when he announced that the birds cannot be ‘tabled’ on the House. Is this not sending contradictory signal to the people? Should they go by the Health Secretary and consume chicken and eggs or take note of the precautions taken by other ministries?
The media on its part added to the confusion. There were experts galore on the screen. According to some, there was no need to panic because only those who came in live contact with the sick birds might pick up infection and, therefore, one could merrily enjoy poultry products while we have all along been fed with the theory that bird flu was highly contagious and an air-borne disease. If it were so, only the poultry workers could have been put under protective care instead of creating scare to everyone. Some said the bird flu was fatal and yet another expert said "not always". The Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, whose state was the epicenter for the disease, and incidentally, the major exporter of poultry products, was quite rational for understandable reasons. He said that the incident had been blown out of proportion as the disease was confined to a 10-km radius in Maharashtra. The media did not agree. It screamed that the humans suspected of contracting the dreaded disease rose to 12. What were their symptoms? Cold and sore throat. But the text book says it might eventually affect heart, lungs, brain, and hence it became the gfx plate for the channels, adding to the scare. Subsequently, only six were confirmed to be carrying the virus H5N1 in a country where millions would be suffering from flu at any point of time. Then those six were cleared! Precaution is necessary, but scare-mongering is not. But, that was what the "masked" television reporters were doing in and around Navapur hamlets and hospitals. As if the media confusion is not enough, the Poultry Federation joined the fray with the theory that it is the multi-national companies producing vaccines and medicines for bird flu that are behind the scare and advised its consumers not to panic.
The whole problem is because when avian flu spread across Europe recently, an Austrian Institute predicted that the bird flu could turn into a pandemic, more deadly than the 1918 Spanish flu, and could kill 142 million people - pure arithmetic. So, the origin of scare was the West and our media just transmitted the scare to the East as well. It is worth recalling the TIME’s viewpoint. Referring to the international donors pledge of 1.9 billion US dollars for global efforts to control bird flu, the magazine found fault with the rationale behind it. "An estimated 6600 Africans die of AIDS every day, 3000 die of malaria, 24,000 of hunger and poverty. As long as bird flu primarily remains a threat to birds, it just doesn’t compare with these everyday scourges…International donors need to be very sure that they aren’t robbing from other health programmes to pay for bird-flu measures"
Is there a lesson for us to learn from this observation?
contact: s_ramanujan9@yahoo.co.in