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Is Europe still faced by bird flu pandemic? It would seem so, at least to judge from reports in the press everyday with news of the latest outbreaks and the numbers of contagion from the deadly H5N1 virus in various countries. Apart from the gravity of any risks of pandemic and the real dangers, the experts say that these do not exceed one in a thousand of what is said and written. The dogged interest of the media in each new confirmed case seems rather odd, almost as if they were waiting impatiently for a wished-for deterioration… It seems to me that the news of the current media pandemic reveals a far more serious epidemic: that of a general spiritual blindness that exposes the forces of manipulation. The economically weak countries also face the risk of bird flu. They have problems in guaranteeing primary medical care to their own citizens, but suddenly find the money to set up systems of prevention, protection and elimination of the possible tragedy. No one now recalls the thousands of healthy livestock eliminated due to a similar “mass media influenza”, that of mad cow disease. Or perhaps due to the interests of someone? It was ordered to do or write thus and so it’s done, just like the decisions of the Central Committee a few decades ago… The same blindness is registered in other fields. We may think of the spread of the virus of Aids, thousands of victims and of lives totally destroyed. The causes of these epidemics, the means of their diffusion and also the methods of their prevention are well known. The pages of the same newspapers and television programmes that report attempts to curb bird flu advertise lifestyles and disseminate forms of conduct that undoubtedly cause personal, psychological and physical tragedies. As communicators let us try to set ourselves limits, and press for laws that guarantee and that protect people’s moral and physical health. Let us try to be witnesses of world protests against the violations of freedom and against the false forms of freedom, first and foremost that of choosing one’s own death. Fortunately, in some countries of Europe there are still those who have fresh memories. What’s happening today recalls their demagogic past. And they pose questions… I repeat once again: my intention is not in the least to underestimate the real dangers of the new avian influenza, still less to place in doubt the need for due prevention. I merely fail to understand this double standard. It is far easier to applaud decisions that do not affect us personally, whereas we have to pay a price for seeking to change the culture of death. Hypocrisy or spiritual blindness? We ought to be those who expose the dual standard and ask for at least equal attention, interventions and prevention against the moral epidemics confirmed by thousands of victims.
