If you think our healthcare system has problems now, how do you think it will fare in the event of a bird flu pandemic? Avian influenza is currently not spread by person-to-person contact. Since 2003, 165 people worldwide have contacted bird flu and about 88 of those people have died. Those individuals all had close contact with infected birds. Scientists fear that it is only a matter of time before the virus mutates into a form that can be spread by human contact. When that happens it could spread around the world within weeks or months. Governments around the world are scrambling to find solutions to prevent that from happening. Antivirals such as Tamiflu are being stockpiled. Current inventory may only cover about 20% of the population or less. If a pandemic breaks out, those stockpiles would quickly dwindle. New antivirals would take 6 months to get into high volume production and distributed to those who need it.

In the event of an influenza pandemic, our healthcare system will be stretched to the limit. If we examine the numbers we can see the frightening scenario. Based on a