So what occupations are best in the event of a pandemic where everyone is
confined to their homes? How will you best keep from encountering others
who have the flu and still make a living for the 12 - 18 months duration they
are predicting such a plague might last?

I'm just gonna eat kimchi 3 times a day and go to work.
That's as good a plan as any.

On the upside, I work at home and have a stockpile of supplies. On the downside I'm an Illustrator/Graphic Designer and in such a situation, especially if it were for an extended period of time, I would more than likely have little or no work and since I pretty much live from hand to mouth I would be kicked out of my home where I would most likely be subjected to the H5N1 virus.

I guess a person can really only prepare so much. I could contract Bird Flu before anyone knew what was going on and suggested ways to avoid it...

I've decided I'm as prepared as I can be at the moment so I'm going to go on with my life and not worry about it until it's time to act.

Is it burrying my head in the sand to think this way considering how much I prepare for other eventualities?

I remember when the old spacelab's orbit deteriorated everyone worried about it crashing in their backyard.An asian man woke up screaming it's name and died of a heart attack. I have a pet raven named Loki and a barn owl called Minerva at the ranch. Down the road is an abandoned egg farm with filthy brood sheds. I actually rescued several Mixtec familys living in that squalor and working the local farms. At dusk huge murder's of crows fly past my apartment mimicking some shakespearean battlefield dirge. The local gang of buzzards sleep in a nearby oaktree like something out of the Addams family. Prepare for birdflu <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> I'm wearing all the various religous icons gifted to me over the years <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Obviously, any that allow you to remain in your house. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Retired people have it made here.

The jobs that'll suck are those requiring travel of any distance. If we do have a significant outbreak, I'd bet travel will be severely restricted.

A plague is too far outside my expertise and experience to be able to do anything more than guess. I have no real idea what it'll be like. Bad, certainly. I forget where I read it, but I recently saw a quote that said something like "Avian flu will be, mainly, a purge of poor people from society". Those with access to modern health care probably won't suffer nearly as much. Think New Orleans, but globally. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

That blows. Not only I work as a paramedic on the streets of NYC but I also work as a medic at JFK.

the biggest threat to my survival right now is outsourcing my job to india, can't worry about bird flu or mad cow, I have to train the very people that are taking my job [and smile at the same time -- or it's back to diversity training again]. They don't have a vacine for that.

I do not wish to dismiss what is potentially a catastrophic health issue, but there are too many other significant current health problem affecting people’s lives today, for me to worry much about the avian flu.

Pete

Sounds like home to me, Chris. I talk to the local crows and ravens (it has to do with my handle, I think :P ) pretty much daily, and I'm dealing with people every day. I have much bigger things to worry about than a flu that might come this year, or next, or five years from now.

Well I thought folks might have a bit more insight here. After all the flu kills
10 times as many people each year in this country as died in 9/11. The
flu of 1918 killed more soldiers than ww1. I guess deciding which pocket knife
to carry is of greater import.