Whatever happened to the bird flu..you remember..the last one that was supposed to wipe us all out?
Or how about Swine flu? Swine flu was supposed to be a “pandemic”.
This is a charade by Obama to create a CRISIS. There is no evidence that this is either an epidemic. It's just a flu. He wants to get YOU to support GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE. It's a farce.
Bird flu killed about 60 percent of people that got it. (Maybe fewer, if some who got it didn't get counted.) My guess is, a) the population it first hit (Asian poultry workers?) was not very mobile, b) it killed quickly, and c) Asian countries take epidemics more seriously than we do (dense population centers and collective worldview). Combine that with the fact that bird flu never really adapted to a human host, and it didn't spread very far.
The US produced an H5N1 vaccine for the National Stockpile. I think there's supposed to be enough for 20 million people. It requires twelve times as much antigen*, spread over two shots, to produce immunity in 45% of recipients. Others may develop reduced immunity.
If H5N1 mutates to better infect humans, but keeps the 60% fatality rate, it will be a Bad Thing.
* Trivalent seasonal vaccine contains 45 mcg; 2009 monovalent vaccine requires 15 mcg. Two shots of 90 mcg each = 180 mcg. 180 mcg / 15 mcg = 12.