"If an influenza pandemic struck today, borders would close, the global economy would shut down, international vaccine supplies and health-care systems would be overwhelmed, and panic would reign."

-- "Preparing for the Next Pandemic", Foreign Affairs, Aug 2005

This is one of a series of recent articles on the subject by the Council on Foreign Relations. The author, Dr. Michael Osterholm, is head of the Center for Infectious Disease Research at the Univ. of Minnesota.