AVIAN FLU IN NIGERIA?

And there’s this:

Bird flu has reached Western Europe, with Italy and Greece announcing yesterday they had detected the H5N1 strain of the virus in dead swans.

No immediate threat to humans, yet, of course. Meanwhile, the WSJ’s avian flu newstracker reports:

The European Commission expects to release in March details of an influenza pandemic simulation exercise carried across the 25 EU-member states in November. The final report is still being prepared, but among the early findings released were the fact that the organization’s computer network could become overloaded in a scenario of a quickly evolving pandemic.

Even if the feared avian flu pandemic never materializes, it’s becoming clear that we’re not ready for a pandemic of any sort, really.