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True...sometimes the living envy the dead. This bird flu scares the hell out of me. Our modern society has no idea what would happen if a major epidemic occurs. The Spanish Flu of 1918 was 2% fatal. H5n1 so far is 50% fatal. Around 30% or 40% of our population gets the flu every year. 30% would be 100 million sick unable to function in the US alone. With up to 50 million deaths. The hospitals would be unable to cope. The military will be unable to cope. No food would be able to be brought into cities. Travel restrictions would be put in place. All major companies no longer carry any inventories of anything. Just in time inventories save money but when large sections of your workforce die, or do not show for work supply problems will occur. Our economy based on consumer spending (i.e going to the store) will cease to be. Yes this is worse case but these are the facts at the moment. We have no vaccine, the virus is becoming resistant to our drugs, our modern life requires people to intermingle for maximum effect. Until the fatality rate of the virus goes down I will remain worried. Hopefully this will be like Rita and go down from a 5 to a three before we get hit but what if it doesn't?