A repeat of flu vaccine scare of last year?

This is something (else) that I try and keep up on: flu activity. After the panic Chiron corporation created when half our nations vaccine would not arrive, there was a big push for anti-viral medications as an alternate to vaccine.

Well, there was talk on NBC news that Chiron may fall short of vaccine production by 7 million (I expect that number to rise like last year), and I've read reports that there's no proof that these anti-virals have not been proven against H5N1 (or Asian bird flu). But there's no reason why it wouldn't (famous last words, right?)

So, what can we do in case H5N1 easily transmitts person to person? It'd be nice if there was a way to quickly produce vaccine on demand. Unfortunately, the NIH is suffering budget cuts with this administration, so their ability to fund a new flu vaccine manufacturing process is not very likely. (Too bad the government is finding resources for hundreds of billions of dollars for an endeavor that needs more money and resources, and could still fail.)

Why is all this important? 1918. The end of World War I was a time when millions more people died from the flu. Even without overnight international travel, this travelled the world. Then vanished. I never heard about this pandemic until a couple of years ago. It is interesting on several perspectives, but I also realize that we need to learn from this to try and help when the next pandemic comes. I don't mean to sound like a "the sky is falling" person, but we cannot just ignore the Asian bird flu problem because it's on the other side of the world.