Avian flu will make hurricanes look like a summer breeeze

Thomas Van't Hof, an ornithologist at Wright State University in Ohio, announced publicly that a worldwide epidemic of the avian flu isn't a possibility: it's an eventuality. The fact that birds migrate from continent to continent means that the deadly virus is simply unstoppable, and will be a truly global presence in a matter of years. Right now, there is no cure for the deadly disease, but the saving grace is that it has not yet mutated into a form that is easily transmittable from human to human. Right now, the 61 human deaths worldwide have all been caused by direct contact with infected poultry. Over 100 million birds have died, and the human death toll could also number in the tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions.

Scientists around the world are working to come up with something that can beat this virus, but given the decades-long struggle against HIV, I would say that the outcome is not a done deal by any stretch of the imagination. This is a perfect example of an imminent threat that should be given an ounce of prevention, in the form of however much funding it takes to develop a defense. In the past four years, Americans have been caught with their collective pants down on two major issues: terrorism and hurricane preparedness. In each case, a crisis fueled a political cover-your-ass spending bonanza that cost the taxpayers tens, even hundreds, of billions of dollars. Given that the total death toll between those two disasters was somewhat less than 5,000, and that the potential death toll for a communicable avian flu could range into the millions, the question becomes: is any amount of spending to prevent this crisis too much?

For the avian flu FAQ by the world Health Organizaton:
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/avian_faqs/en/index.html

It's never too tragic to profit, apparently. This link is to the "Investor's Guide to Avian Flu," which advises people to be prepared for the bottoming out of stocks that's sure to occur in the face of a deadly global epidemic. Buy low, sell high!
http://www.survivetheflu.com/avian_flu.pdf