Bird Flu plus new mutant strain = WTSHTF

Evidence exists today that described experiments in which natural strains of H5N1 bird flu, which do not spread easily from human to human, were mutated to make them more transmissible.
Though bird flu outbreaks have killed many of those infected, most people who contracted the virus caught it directly from birds. Since the virus became known, scientists have been racing to work out how it could mutate in the wild into a more transmissible strain that would spread quickly from person to person.
The mutated strains were created for research into drugs and vaccines, but if released from their high security containment facilities at university laboratories, have the potential to trigger a global pandemic.
In November, a doctor told a reporter, that the strain of bird flu his team had created was "probably one of the most dangerous viruses you can make." The journal quoted Paul Keim, the chair of the NSABB, who worked extensively on anthrax, saying: "I can't think of another pathogenic organism that is as scary as this one. I don't think anthrax is scary at all compared to this."