The bird flu has killed 100 times more people than Chinese officials admit, said an unofficial report presented by a World Health Organisation (WHO)
avian influenza expert on November 20. WHO bird flu consultant Dr. Masato Tashiro presented this unverified information, received from China via
"private channels," to a room of the world's top virologists, while speaking at the University of Marburg in Germany. According to the data, at
least 300 people have died from H5N1 bird flu in China and 3000 have been infected including seven cases of human-to-human transmission, reported the
German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).
Well,
At least there is one bit of good news from this story. If Dr. Tashiro's numbers are correct, the death rate is closer to 10% than the 50% currently
reported. This makes sense actually. If rural people are getting a bad flu and then get better it may go unreported.
"Private channels" has no valid basis to say anything.
Who are they? They speak with about as much authority as "unnamed sources". How about a real organization or person to give the statement any
credibility?
There are also links on www.peacehall.com (possibly connected to Epoch Times? See
this thread if you care) about this report. The latest link says that the Chinese
deny this rumor. Good enough for me.