The age of irresponsibility

We really are living in an age of irresponsibility. Here's Case A: ABC's new ratings gimmick, the movie "Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America." And in what would seem to be a conflict of interest, ABC News reports on it.

Bodies piling up so quickly it takes dump trucks to haul them away. Barbed wire to keep whole neighborhoods quarantined. It's Hollywood's version of bird flu, a blur of fact and fiction that some scientists say could confuse the public.

"Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America," an ABC made-for-television movie, airs May 9, just as scientists are to begin testing of wild birds in Alaska that could herald the arrival of bird flu in North America. Scientists fear the bird flu virus could evolve so it could be passed from human to human, sparking a global pandemic.

You can take all of the other catastrophy movies and set them aside. They're relatively harmless because what they portray is unlikely to happen. This is a different case, though. The bird flu will eventually make it to North America in birds. It is also possible, although I think it unlikely, that it will become easily passed from human to human. If that should occur, it is going to require as much calm as possible to get through the pandemic with as little damage as possible to society.

What this movie does is burn a beyond worst case scenario into the public's mind. Should the day come that the bird flu transmits easily from human to human, this movie serves to be the spark of a panic. ABC has every right to make and show this movie, but what they are doing is grossly irresponsible, and it probably won't even accomplish what they are hoping for, which is big ratings. It looks like a terrible movie, and if it does garner big ratings, it is only because ABC scared people into watching. I, for one, won't be.