Heads Up, People: We're All Gonna Die!

In case you've been living under a rock lately, apparently the bird flu is back and it's coming to get us all. If you, as I have, been exposed to any kind of news this weekend, you know the situation is dire... but we've had no incidents in the U.S. and currently the only way to get the flu is to be in Asia or Europe and have DIRECT CONTACT WITH THE INFECTED BIRDS.

Do you detect a little exasperation? You bet. Which is not to take away from the fact that of the 117 infected with this flu, 60 have died. That's right, even I can do that math -- more than half of all infected bit the big one.

And yet the frenzy surrounding this story over the weekend makes me suspicious. Is this just a slow news weekend (aka "Summer of the Shark" just before 9/11 -- a whole summer devoted to fewer shark attacks than there had been the previous year simply because there was nothing else to talk about -- thanks, Osama!)? Or is something else going on? Notice that last weekend, we had a probable hoax swirling around unfounded rumors about an attack on the NYC subway system. And notice that Bush's approval rating is WAY down, he's still trying to get that Miers chick nominated, and nobody's real happy with the way his non-war is progressing. So let's whip up the fear to divert everyone's attention!

Want to know what I'm really nervous about? The recreation of the 1918 Spanish flu. It's a wonderful bit of science, I guess, but the decision to PUBLISH THE MOLECULAR STRUCTURE FOR EVERYONE IN THE WORLD TO SEE scares the living bejesus out of me. That was a bird flu, too, and now we all have a nice biological weapon to play with.

Cheers, everyone. It's been nice knowing you.