Just when we thought we were safe from bird flu….it’s back! The airwaves are full of those cryptic reports of how 1 person (out of 200 million) has been infected. Never mind that this person also sleeps at night with chickens…

Anyway, just in case you’re revisiting the idea of hording that semi-worthless drug known as Tamifu, this may help put things in perspective.

This is from Foreign Policy, and the article is the Top Ten Stories You Missed in 2006 You know, if you were blinded by the headlines about Tom Cruise, and the latest traffic accident, or that all important news of how George W Bush was saving pre-embryos in petri dishes–what a giant step for the human race.

In 2006, bird flu didn’t become the killer pandemic everyone feared. In fact, there were no confirmed deaths in developed countries from bird flu. But the alarm, stoked by Western media reports, led to an unexpected—and unfortunate—outcome: A rash of abnormal behavior, hallucinations, and even deaths attributed to Tamiflu, the medicine marketed as a key drug capable of fighting the disease.

In November, the Canadian health ministry issued a warning on Tamiflu after 10 Canadians taking the drug had died suspiciously. And the U.S. Food and Drug Administration received more than 100 reports of injury and delirium among Tamiflu takers for a 10-month period in 2005 and 2006. That’s nearly as many cases as were logged over the drug’s five-year trial period. For now, the cure seems worse than the disease.

In case anyone remembers or even paid attention, Tamiflu has been found to be only minimally effective against the regular flu. Meaning, Tamiflu is barely effective against the regular influenza which zips through annually. It doesn’t prevent it, and only minimally reduces the severity.

And so it seems, that you may be better off taking your chances with bird flu, then going anywhere near Tamiflu.