Just to keep things in perspective

One news outlet, picked up in today’s Drudge Report, excitedly reports that, since 2003, 100 people have died worldwide from bird flu. Just to get a little perspective, the world population stands at 6,504,897,740. Even I, a math nincompoop, can figure out that the death rate is infinitesimally small (which is not to say that it can’t grow exponentially). Keep in mind that the annual number of flu deaths in America alone is about 36,000 people. So, 100 deaths or not, I’ve decided I’m not yet ready to panic.

Talking to Technorati: Bird flu