Bird flu arrives in Latvia: Liepāja residents already watching the skies

Infectologist Zavadska has announced that bird flu is increasingly jumping from birds to humans. Panic has already started in Riga, but in Liepāja we know - if birds are sick, they won't make it to the North Pier for romantic walks. One less problem to worry about.

"We've already experienced everything - bird flu, swine flu, even flu from the neighbor's cat," says local resident Jānis, who spent yesterday evening on the pier, watching the storm and pondering life's meaning. "Now we just have to wait for rat flu or maybe finally a sea crab variant."

Zavadska explains that viruses in nature are as changeable as Liepāja's weather - sunny today, snow tomorrow, epidemic the day after. "It's that powder keg we're sitting on," she admits. Well, Liepāja residents sit on such kegs every day - our city budget is also a powder keg, but somehow we survive.

The only thing that worries us - will bird flu also affect seagulls? Because then there'll be neither romantic strollers nor storm watchers on the North Pier. Only us locals will remain, with our natural immunity to all the world's problems.

"While Riga thinks about how to prepare for a pandemic, we're already ready," says another Liepāja resident. "We have the sea, fresh air, and experience. And if push comes to shove, we can always go to the pier and think about whether it's really that important anyway."