Hooray (kind of), China has finally started to admit the potential severity of the avian flu (sort of).:

While there have been nearly 150 human cases of H5N1 bird flu elsewhere in Asia, officially, China has denied any human cases until today. Shanghaiist has been somewhat skeptical about the rest of the world’s apparent lack of skepticism, even before reading SCMP reports about unannounced outbreaks elsewhere in hard-hit Liaoning province, where guards placed to keep outsiders from entering affected villages warn passersby of human deaths within. A hodge-podge of conflicting information on outbreaks and human cases and a barrage of denials from various local officials (including one who was arrested for certifying the health of bird-flu-infected chickens), even after outbreaks have been officially announced gives Shanghaiist the unsettling feeling that the entire situation will inevitably blow up a la SARS 2003. And all of the laudatory international recognition for the way Beijing has handled bird flu thus far seems to completely ignore what really matters: the (questionable) accountability of local officials at the site of unfolding outbreaks, and how well-equipped they are to handle bird flu.

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