h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Not much, just to say how good of you to turn such bad things into a positive.

Also this bird flu thing seems to be rather exaggerated, I remember hearing about it a good 6 months ago or more (seeing as I only found out the other day John Peel has been dead for a year when I thought a few months my approxomation is clearly not reliable) and nothing happened, now apparently its happening in Asia but it doesn't seem to be a huge huge problem. A bit like BSE and Foot n Mouth, it will probably only hit localised areas, thankfully and hopefully they won't be ours.

I can't ignore bad news - I have to deal with it. And there are few problems that can't be made better by a trip to the bookstore.

Actually, scientists have been predicting an influenza pandemic for years; it's just that the news has finally gotten through to the general population and governments. They've been keeping an eye out for trouble, and bird flu is a likely candidate because it's a lot more lethal than the yearly influenza viruses we get vaccinated against. Also flu viruses are very good at mutating until they can spread from person to person, so while H5N1 hasn't done so yet, we shouldn't assume that it won't. I doubt it would stay localised. The virus is spread by wild birds - which is how it has arrived in Turkey and Romania - and all it takes is one infected person on an international flight (that's how SARS got to Toronto a few years ago).

I'm taking it seriously because, although I'm fairly immune to influenza myself, I can carry it home to my much-loved cockatiels. Once it looks there's a pandemic underway, I'll quarantine myself - which is why I'm accumulating a supply of food, water, reading material, and The Collected Works of Johnny Depp. If there's no pandemic this year, no harm done - I won't have to buy groceries for a while.