I have been hearing from some that the bird flu hoopla we have recently heard about is a publicity stunt. Others say the threat is very real. Perhaps what settles the argument is this article.

"Most bird flus emerge briefly and are relatively localized," said Dr. Andrew T. Pavia, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah and chairman of the pandemic influenza task force of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. The most worrisome thing about H5N1, Dr. Pavia said, is that it has not gone away.

The article is pretty balanced saying that the crowded conditions of past epidemics don’t exist today and thus the spread of a rapid epidemic is less likely. For example there was the crowding of millions of troops during World War I that turbocharged the spread of disease. Furthermore in past epidemics people migrated from the country to the city where they were exposed to flu bugs for the first time. They had no resistance. Another point is that many people died from bacterial infections in past flu epidemics and now we have antibiotics.

Still, it is worth doing more research and being more prepared. Looking back, it seems like President Clinton had an easy presidency. Look at the events that have taken place in the last five years, 911 and Katrina. In the prior eight years all we had to worry about was a booming economy. President Bush probably knows he doesn’t really have the luck of the Irish on his side. He knows what they say about an ounce of prevention as well. Of course in our government that ounce costs $4 billion.