Gee, I guess the big boys ARE worried:

"Huge U.S. economic losses forecast in flu pandemic"

REUTERS:
An influenza pandemic on the scale of the 1918 "Spanish Flu" would inflict $700 billion in economic losses in the United States and a 5.5 percent GDP drop in a year, according to a report released on Thursday.

Such a pandemic could trigger the second-deepest U.S. economic recession since World War Two, the report from the advocacy group Trust for America's Health found.

The group examined the potential economic consequences facing the United States in a pandemic that might occur if, for example, the H5N1 avian influenza virus that has killed 169 people globally mutates to become more readily spread among people.

Gosh, fellers, I guess if it's gonna cost you money, you better do something about it.

It's hard to tell, but the estimate on the number of deaths during the 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak is anywhere from 20 to 50 million--hard to tell, because not every country back then kept good census figures.

Conspiracy theorists who wish to study the 1918 outbreak are invited to view the results of GoogleSearching SPANISH FLU FT. RILEY. Of course, the same conspiracy theorist might conclude that this is all part of the Grand Plan of Earth's custodians to kill off or subdue the planet's population.

(Damn! I was gonna write more, but I just simultaneously coughed, sneezed, farted, and accidentally hacked a big oyster all over my monitor. Hope I'm not coming down with something.)