Bird flu may be more common, less deadly

For all you Chicken Little sociopaths who are scrubbing your environment, gargling with Lysol, and avoiding human contact, please note this article. Also, note how the flu is spread:

So far, the bird flu deaths in Turkey involved children playing with dead chickens.

"Hey, Bobby - whatcha got there?" "Oh, hi, Timmy! It's a dead chicken. Wanna play with it?" "Heck yeah! I'll be Colonel Sanders, and you can be the pimply-faced restaurant manager!"

So, what's our bird-flu family profile? Let's take a look:

The new study involved 45,476 randomly selected residents of a rural region where bird flu is rampant among poultry - Ha Tay province west of Hanoi. More than 80 percent lived in households that kept poultry and one-quarter lived in homes reporting sick or dead fowl.

I don't know about the rest of you city folk, but we quit keeping poultry in the house some time ago.

And now for the big scientific conclusion:

"The closer the contact with sick or dead poultry, the higher the risk for flu-like illness," Thorson said. That finding "speaks strongly against it being a circumstantial finding."

Here's a health tip, American citizens: don't play with sick or dead poultry, and chances are you'll be just fine. Now get out from under the bed and get back to work.