Bird Flu Threat of Pandemic as High as Terrorism

Once again, except for war and dirty tricks, the USA lags behind everyone else.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/conditions/06/24/health.flu.reut/

And is there a vaccine against terrorist attacks?

There is one for the bird flu virus....

The odds of suffering from either may be significant but they're not comparable.

There's no vaccine for the bird flu mentioned in any of the articles I've read.

As for the terrorism comparison, that's the papers headline, as you can see.

Of course there's a vaccine
http://www2.niaid.nih.gov/Newsroom/Releases/flucontracts.htm

Avian flu was transmitted to humans in China, Thailand, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia only via appalling hygienic conditions in direct contact with the birds, with no human-to-human transmission so far. Birds in Japan also got sick, but no humans due to better hygiene.

The danger is in a virus mutation permitting human-to-human transmission. It's not clear if existing vaccines would work with such a mutated virus which is why no large stocks of avian flu vaccines have been produced.

The real danger here is that China has been administering human flu vaccines to chickens creating ever more dangerous strains of the virus:
http://www.mydna.com/health/flu/news/resources/news/200506/news_20050621_birdflu.html

and, not to be frightmongering, but I think I read that they are giving some of the latest antibios for humans to chickens... which - let me guess - will affect their potency fairly speedily, via resistance paths. Not that I know that.

Ossobuco - by Chinese standards that's nothing; their public officials sell real vaccines on the black market and instead distribute counterfeit versions costing a tenth as much. The authorities only arrest somebody if anybody dies, and sometimes not even then.
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"Most of the vaccinations were purchased from a private vendor, Zhang Peng, who has since disappeared, it said.

Authorities detained Zhou Shimin, director of Anhui's Dazhuang Township Hospital, and Hou Huafeng, head of the Dazhuang Township Healthcare and Epidemic Prevention Station, the paper said. They also detained Zhou Shikai, a health worker who allegedly purchased the vaccines.

Samples of the vaccine were being tested, the paper said.

China is battling a surge in counterfeit or shoddy food, medicines, sanitary products and agricultural materials.. "
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http://www.canada.com/health/story.html?id=c3e1963b-369d-4aab-b970-ff9abb6ff453

Hoft, your vaccine reference only indicates contracts had been given for two companies to start trying to develop a vaccine.

That was just over a year ago. Given the time it takes to develop, do several stages of studies, and mass produce, I doubt the vaccine is currently marketable on a large scale.