So what is this "vanishingly small probability"?
That kind of information might get rid of this "near hysteria".
Right now your odds of contracting bird flu are something on the order of 1 in about 700,000,000 and then only if you actually live with your poultry. I mean really live with it, not just have a coop on your property. In nearly every case of b2h transmission the birds have been in the house with the victims.
But Miller Beer, Chevy, and Viagra won't buy advertising slots for a MOTW in which no one in America dies of a disease that only infects chickens in 3rd world countries. It would also be extremely difficult for anyone to get funding from the government if they didn't use words like 'potential threat' and 'catastrophic worst case scenario'.
L