I told my mother that I have never had the flu (that I know of), and she said that I had had it as a child. I had to tell her that the stomach flu is caused by a completely different virus...
The avian influenzas have a higher case fatality rate than Ebola, and are more contagious. Yet Ebola nearly caused a national panic while the various deadly influenzas barely elicit yawns.
If you want to become really nervous, take a look at bird migratory routes. In the northern latitudes, birds from all continents mingle and share diseases. Those deadly diseases circulating in Asia cannot be confined there.
“The avian influenzas have a higher case fatality rate than Ebola, and are more contagious. Yet Ebola nearly caused a national panic while the various deadly influenzas barely elicit yawns.”
IIRC ‘Mother Abigail’ was resigned to the idea that we are due for a near-extinction event, courtesy of a hybrid flu. I don’t recall if she shared the exact type that she had in mind, but she was someone to take seriously. She posted her theory here that the mysterious reservoir animal for ebola would turn out to be fruit bats, and she did this many months before her old pals at the CDC released that idea to the press.