It Won't Be Pretty

My Way News:

"GENEVA (AP) - The magnitude of suffering caused by the next human flu pandemic will be 'incalculable' if the world is unprepared, the chief of the U.N. health agency said Monday as he urged countries to draw up plans for preparations.

At the first major international coordination meeting on bird flu, a senior World Bank economist said that if the financial fallout of the SARS outbreak two years ago is any indication, a flu pandemic could cause world gross domestic product to drop by 2 percent or more. That would amount to about $800 billion in losses over the course of a year, said Milan Brahmbhatt."

Here and there I get reports that people are panicing for no reason about this bird flu; that it won't be as bad as expected. That's good, since what's expected is a whole lot worse than anything we've ever lived through. Or not.