The Pitter Patter of Little Virii Around the Globe

The avian - aka bird - flu has now made it into Russia.

As you may have heard, they're having a little problem with public health there.

Trust me, this is no pool but... how long do you think before it strikes here?

And are you ready to be quarantined forcibly, potentially into concentration camp style locations, with the military (posse comitatus waived because it's just a pesky law) holding M-16s on you while you lie ill? Go back and read two of Bush' speeches in the past month because that's exactly what he told you to expect.

Pharmaceutical companies, rather than trying to work on their own here in the US, are instead simply suing the Swiss for the vaccine copyright so they can produce the Switzerland vaccine here at no cost to them but plenty to you.

Remember: if they started today, there would likely be no vaccination in place by the time the pandemic hits. At its current rate of progression, I don't see how we make it more than a year without a major outbreak. (But forcible occupation of the potentially ill? This will take some constitution twisting.)

And there's that little matter of how our PhRMA (not a typo - this is the pharmaceutical manufacturers' lobbying group) companies everyday choose to keep drugs out of the hands of other countries where people desperately need them.

The Bush Years: a fun time was had by very few... a select very few.