I first read this news a while back. Probably back in the fall, when the flu season was just starting here in North America.

We've been lucky this flu season since it's been a mild one. On top of all the other awful news going on since last fall, a bad flu season to boot would've been miserable.

A couple things to keep in mind:

1. The flu has multiple strains that circulate at any given time and that mix changes over time. So if the predominant strain now is resistant doesn't necessarily mean that the "flu" (in general) will always be resistant in the future.

2. As far as pandemic potential goes, there's no guarantee that the next pandemic disease will be the flu, or a particular strain of the flu that is already resistant to anti-virals. But obviously, a pandemic flu strain that is also resistant to Tamiflu and other anti-virals makes a lot of our centrally stockpiled pandemic medications useless. Or another scenario is that a deadly strain of influenza swaps genetic material with a mild strain that is resistant and then you have a much bigger problem on your hands in a short period of time.