I was in Thailand last year during the first bird flu outbreak (and in Singapore during the SARS outbreak, for that matter). People were absolutely hysterical about not touching chicken: I remember going to eat out with a few Thai colleagues and ordering a sausage platter. Everything else was polished off... except a few chicken sausages, which I've always figured are about as dead as meat can be (boiled, sterilized, pumped full of preservatives, frozen, reheated and grilled!). I ate one and got strange looks from everybody else... and a day later PM Thaksin was on TV eating his way through a bucket of KFC in an attempt to stop the chicken industry from collapsing.

One year later, bird flu is still around, but nobody gives a damn anymore. ^ And Thai chicken is doing better than ever, because these days they process it locally and ship it out cooked, adding more value than the previous style of just selling raw carcasses.

Going to bali in november and the bombs and bird flu bothers me somewhat. Now here seem to be some cases in north africa. but, i am going regardless and carry tamiflu with me.

Remember, the media is not in the news business but in the advertising business. Add bird flu to the long list that started with the Killer Bees and continues with Global Warming. The Sky Is Not Falling!

For what it's worth, I just booked some (first class!) award tickets to Beijing, departing on Jan 31, returning May 6. I am confident this will all boil over soon enough.

I agree 100%. And don't forget the scientists who want big funding for their "research" - and politicians who like to jump on any boat they think will get them more votes.

There was a reason Michael Crichton named his book "State of Fear" - fear brings in the big bucks.

I still remember people hyping the coming "Ice Age" about the time I was graduating from high school (1969).