NPR just said, in regards to the alleged bird flu that has killed, uh, one person on Mars because it caused massive engine failure while he was mapping an obscure part of the planet and he died of thirst in the desert walking back to base camp and only then because he ate the wrong type of mushroom:
"The Bush Administration has not learned its lessons from the 1918!"
They're referring to the 1918 Pandemic which, really, was a weird and unusual event and killed tens of millions in 18 months.
It's worth noting, for the conspiracy nuts amoung you, that the US began working on the "unique strain" of the 1918 flu by unearthing a mass grave in Kansas and recovering the still active strain. This was about five years ago when they did it, and they finished reconstructing it genetically in 2002. And...then...there's trouble in...China, right?
Anyway... Learn the lessons from 1918? What lessons? What the fuck are they talking about? The flu came right at the end of a massive World War. The ability for normal people to travel was nothing like it is today. If the lesson is "Lots of people died," I don't know what we're supposed to do with it.
Remember your lesson! tens of millions died from the flu in 1918!
Okay! I'll wash my hands and take liquids!
