Russian Expert Says Flu Epidemic May Kill Over One Billion This Year; WHO convenes emergency meeting

I've been saying for a year that this was coming in the next year or two, and while one Russian scientist does not constitute a consensus on just WHEN one is coming, I think it's interesting that WHO (remember, though, it's part of that organization that GWB hates so much) is convening a rather hasty summit. Perhaps the people who disdain the UN would rather just go this alone, also, rather than all countries co-operating to develop a vaccine for the H5N1 avian flu and manufacture it. Sure, we could do it all alone, assuming the profit was there to encourage our companies to bother to protect us. Isn't it nice to think that Pfizer and the rest's patriotism pretty much depends on the % profit they make? Much like Cheney and Halliburton, actually. They're good Americans as long as they get ample rewards to be good Americans. Otherwise, as Cheney so succinctly pointed out, we can go fuck ourselves.