This could be the result of government philosophy of not freaking people out too much.

I have heard that when the weather forecasters are predicting tornadoes, they don't want to give too many warnings for fear of "crying wolf". After too many warnings, people tend to tune out.

What if the bird flu never materializes? Then people will be stuck with a bunch of 3M respirators, gallons of Purell hand sanitizer and a billion Tamiflu tablets. Of course Tamiflu manufacturer would have profited immensely by now. If government was to go ahead and issue concrete recommendations for people like: "Buy Tamiflu now!", people might think that the cronies in the government are getting kickbacks from Tamiflu manufacturer for spreading paranoia about the bird flu ... And who knows, they just might be right. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />