news at nine

Tittle: Scientists Predict Worldwide Flu Outbreak

When: 39 minutes ago


By: MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer

Were: New York

Summary: Many Americans haven't experienced the overwhelming crush of patients at hospitals and doctors' offices and the widespread fear a flu could bring well I have. There have been three in the past 100 years, igniting in 1918, 1957 and 1968. There's no way to predict when the next one will appear, but the pattern does give experts pause.
It's all up to a virus that is variable and fickle, constantly changing its genetic makeup, and the time when it hits upon a combination that lets it take off worldwide is a "roll of the genetic dice," said Dr. William Schaffner some nerd guy. So the lack of a pandemic in the past 35 years basically means, "the genetic dice haven't been rolled that way," Schaffner said. "While we're grateful for that, it makes us nervous."
There's plenty to be nervous about. It's estimated that in the nations alone...