HI! Maybe there should be an alternative thread...but isn't there a chance this is bird flu, or at least some version of it? There is too much news regarding this to be ignored...and by the way it looks like you DO own this thread, it's got your name on it ;-)
My guess is the new outbreak in China and now perhaps in Vietnam is a completely unrelated virus. There's nothing that I've seen to link the two other than geography.
If that turns out not to be the case, then this certainly would be a place to post related developments.
But if somebody wants to post a Garfield cartoon on this thread, there's not much I can do about it.