I read an article like this citing two researchers from a Memphis hospital in USA Today and it reads like the new SARS scare, or the flesh eating virus, or the newest permentation of the shark attack. Tragic, but unlikely to affect me.
Two of my students be absent with flu. Should I be unusally worried for them? One young man has been out since before Thanksgiving with the flu and hasn’t returned to school.
A flu pandemic is inevitable. The1918 pandemic killed 30-40 million people in a relatively short time. There is nothing standing in the way of a pandemic of similar or greater proportions happening at any time.
That having been said, I think the articles you’re seeing are urging a greater level of preparedness for a pandemic, rather than predicting that such a thing is imminent.