The "government" can't protect the citizens from everything. Some things are just gonna happen, and if someone wants protection, they have to do it themselves. No doubt, the gov't can do something, and from what I have read people are working on the problem. But the gov't isn't Godlike and some natural disasters are beyond human agency to prevent or eliminate. This is one of them. Throughout history there have been epidemics that have killed large numbers of people, and this will no doubt happen in the future as well.
Now, if pigs and chickens and ducks and geese and people stopped living in close dirty quarters in China, the flu wouldn't happen at all. But is that likely to stop happening soon?
Asia, not just China. And we can't nuke 'em all...
Try telling that to the libbies.