AVIAN FLU UPDATE: Global Preparedness is taking shape:

As the spread of avian flu accelerated through Europe, scientists said the world’s ability to handle the disease is improving.

“If a catastrophic pandemic occurred tomorrow, everyone in the world would be unprepared,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, or NIAID. Still, he added: “We’re so much better off now than we were six months ago, a year ago.”

Read the whole thing, for good news and bad. And Sen. Bill Frist talked about these issues, too, in our last podcast (also available via iTunes).