Oh My God! Bird Flu!

I read an article today that said in January of this year alone almost $2billion has been spent to combat avian bird flu. Since 2003, 108 people have died from avian bird flu - that works out to about ~40 deaths/year. Scientists admit it's "hard for humans to catch... But it's clearly going to happen and the only way you can prepare is to build your houses with structure".

Ah, nothing like unfounded conjecture and posturing to induce mass hysteria and make a story. Why don't we start preparing for when the Sun explodes or for when belligerent aliens try to take over our planet instead? That may be money better spent.

For references, some other death tolls¹ to consider before calling avian bird flu a 'pandemic':

Commercial Airline: ~169 deaths/year or 1 in 1,568,000
Lightning: ~62 deaths/year
Pig Attack: ~40 deaths/year
Shark Attack: ~10 deaths/year
High School Football: ~6 deaths/year
Vending Machines: ~2 deaths/year
Hockey Puck: ~0.17 deaths/year
Ian Strangling Reporters and Scientists Who Jump to Unfounded Conclusions in Order to Cause Mass Hysteria: ~20 deaths/year (and rising)



¹ - All statistics from deathdata.org and apply to US/Canada only.