Ridiculous.... " Bird flu has killed more than 60 people in four Asian nations since late 2003 and has been found in birds in Russia and Europe." Let's get some perspective: How many have died from the 'plain old' flu in this time period? From Drunk drivers? From food poisoning? From an infection after stubbing their toe? Can we mobilize the military against the citizens if there are mass toe stubbings? Yes, lets get some perspective.......
Extrapolating the 1918 numbers for a pandemic of this kind, we can safely say that there would be 1.7 million dead from this bug in the U.S. alone.......
I don't call that ridiculous....I call it a potential and more and more likely occurrence every year that passes and idiots continue treating chickens with antibiotics that may well make the bug immune to every tool we have.
It's just a matter of time, as we wait for the hammer to come down.
So I think a bit of prior planning is in order and discussions are necessary so that the big surprise does not catch us with our pants in the dryer.
The data from 1918 is irrelevant, because 1) the duration I was specifically referring to was "since late 2003" and 2) many, many things have changed since 1918.
Treating chickens with antibiotics is also unrelated. Viruses are not affected by antibiotics.
I do whole heartedly agree with you that "I think a bit of prior planning is in order and discussions are necessary" however I don't think the military should play such a huge roll.