Stanford university is currently looking for volunteers to test a new vaccine for the Avian Flu.  Since a vaccination is basically a form of the virus itself; doesn't that make the vaccinated individual a carrier?

I read an article in the National Geographic that wasn't peppered with fear and despair; just facts.   Ya learn something new every day.  The Spanish Influenza outbreak in 1918 didn't actually originate in Spain, nor did it originate from a swine as some often assumed.  It was just another damn bird.  Turns out we have the birds to thank for our many strains of influenza.  So suddenly calling this the Bird Flu is just absurd.

Anyways, so far the only way people have managed to contract the deadly virus is to get bitten, eat raw duck blood pudding (which is a delicacy), suck the blood out of a rooster's throat during a cock fight or just in your lil hut with ducks and chickens roaming about and crapping occasionally.  For many Asian third world countries, poultry is often a famlies' lively hood.

But once contracted by a human the virus can mutate and sometimes may pass to another human.  So besides biting the head off a chicken; birds needs a conduit in order to mutate and pass the virus on.  The bad part is not a person dying from this virus.  Yes it's sad and a terrible loss, but once the host dies, so does the virus.  It's the people who caught this virus and survived.  They are now a carrier.

Think about it:  We are all carriers of the 1918 Influenza outbreak.  Once in awhile it mutates and forms one helluva annoying flu season.  And no time machine for you -- travel back into the past (Oh let's say the Middle Ages), and suddenly The Black Plague is the least of their problems, but with everybody dying they might offer to crown you king.