I am of two minds on the avian flu. On the one hand, I see it as the most important threat we face today. On the other hand, I'm getting tired of the media "Crisis of the Day" mentality we see on CNN, Fox, CBS, etc.

From what I've been able to distill from news reports, there is little we can do, other than (1) prophylactic measures, such as hand-washing, masks, general health sleep/vitamin/exercise, or (2) bugging out for six months to our mountain hideaway.

All this being said, WHEN (not if) the avian flu hits, millions of people will die, and the economy will take a multi-billion dollar hit.

I first heard about this threat seven or eight years ago. Not in some esoteric scientific journal, but in the Reader's Digest. Both the Clinton and the Bush administrations have pi$$ed away whatever lead time we had to build up out ability to respond to the threat. We rely on an antiquated system to produce vaccines, and we have no capacity to deal with the respiratory complications this plague will inflict upon us.