Most governments generally don't seem to deal with things until after they are a problem, so it's a little unsettling to see America being proactive about this:
Bush to push for mass-produced birdflu vaccine
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
President George W. Bush will urge manufacturers to come up with ways to mass produce vaccines for the avian flu virus, the White House said on Thursday.
The H5N1 avian influenza virus has killed or forced the destruction of tens of millions of birds and infected more than 100 people, killing at least 60 in four Asian nations since late 2003.
Bush and other leaders fear a pandemic of the virus. He and his top advisers were to hold a meeting on Thursday about ways to combat avian flu.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush would meet on Friday with the heads of major manufacturing companies and urge them to expand the capacity to mass produce a vaccine.
He said they have expressed concerns about liability issues.
The virus has already caused losses of $10 billion to $15 billion to the global poultry industry, with the heaviest losses in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia
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The BBC has been running stories about this daily, with yesterday's being an article about how the flu epidemic of 1918 was most probably a mutated avian virus.
\link{http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4308872.stm}
Is this another example of media scare mongering like Y2k, or is it something we should be worried about? Can we, as individuals do anything to protect ourselves?