Bird Flu?

I am one of those people, that if I hear about some new rare Disease, I instantly develop symptoms. No matter how illogical it seems. No, I don't think I have bird flu, but the recent news on it has me uneasy. I had coffee w/ friends tonight, and we were talking about it. I have been avoiding stories about it b/c of how I am, but couldn't avoid this conversation. And I try not to be a wuss all the time. I'm worried about this thing. I still haven't checked into it yet, but from what my gf read, we are due for a world-wide pandemic. I can't spell it, sorry. As history goes, every 50 yrs or so, some sort of illness comes up that cannot be stopped, and zillions of people die. Scientists believe that this is it. Right now, the only way this thing is spread is from birds to people. Like chicken farmers. When humans get it, 70% die from it. Dr.'s believe that it will only be a matter of time before the virus mutates and figures out how to jump from person to person, and it will be airborne. Oh shit. There is no cure as of now. They are working on it, but they say there will not be enough medicine in the world for everyone when this thing strikes. And to make it worse, it is now in Iraq. Our soldiers are in Iraq, coming back and fourth from that country to ours. It could be a matter of days before we have the first cases of bird flu here in the U.S. Oh shit indeed. I'm freaking out about this. This thing started in China. What the hell is up w/ China? SARS started there, and now this? What are they doing over there that all of these illness' are being formed there? Is it b/c of how many people there? Isn't China the most populated country in the world? My friend lives in China.. I should ask him about it. I would imagine that he would know something about it. He lives in a huge city, but it is not well known, and tourists never go there. 7 million people live there. And that's just one city. Unbelievable. It seems that every day, there are more things in the world that become scary to me. I've joked about running away w/ my family to some unknown, unpopulated destination. Without cars, phones, TV's, computers, other people. Something uncivilized. I don't know if I could do it. I would have to bring a few extended family members, and some friends, but I'd want to start over. Live off the land. Even then, something would come up. As big as this world is, it is less and less likely to find a spot like that. And even if we did, someone would own it. Is there any free land left in the world? Doesn't seem like it. It would be nice though. Perhaps the moon? Who owns the moon? Or the other planets in our solar system? Do you think if those places/planets were livable, that you would have to pay someone to stay there? Or that it would be illegal b/c it was not regulated by the government of some place? Who decides that crap anyway? Don't mind my ranting, I'll be back to my right mind again tomorrow :)

By the way- blogger is being an asshole! It would publish my last 2 posts until this morning. I didn't get any comments till this morning either. I wasn't ignoring them :) I also forgot to mention that my baby is pulling herself up now! AWWWW. And I talked to my friend in China about the bird flu. His input was to stay away from sneezing birds. lol. nice. There you have it.