According to the Herald Sun anyway. Under the heading ‘Bird flu warning: Society could fall,’ the Herald Sun (2/4) had this to say:

“A doomsday scenario for a bird flu epidemic has been drawn up amid fears the disease could reach Australia next year. Hundreds of thousands of deaths, the breakdown of essential services and the collapse of the health system have been forecast in the worst case modelling.”

That’s right, given the choice on what to report on, the Herald Sun decided to go for the worst case scenario; the scenario way out on the fringe of probability, along with the best case scenario, that the virus miraculously disappears (because god loves us). And it took two people to write this shit? This is what happens when a newspaper has no science department/experts. You could, quite easily, fill a whole paper with crap like this, for example:

Fears of an asteroid colliding with Earth have just come to the attention of the Herald Sun’s ignorant writers. All life on earth could be wiped out and the planet totally annihilated, according to the worst case modelling done by scientists (several decades ago). This catastrophe could occur at any time, so be very afraid. One of our reporters quizzed a NASA spokesman as to exactly what they intend to do to counter such a threat. The NASA guy, after hitting our reporter with a specially designed, carbon-fibre reporter wacker, had this to say: “Fuck you, maybe if we had some fucking funding we might be able to do something about it, you prick.” He then hit our reporter with the inanimate carbon rod again, which really hurt. So, NASA doesn’t care that we could all be destroyed at a moments notice. How many people know of this imminent threat to our very existence? As always, the Herald Sun is the first to break the news. What can we expect to occur on impact day? Expect a brief hot, loud, explodey period before you die (very brief).