This Slate article on this years flu strain mentions how avian flu--flu passed directly from birds to humans without a porcine intermediary--are particularly dangerous, and says,

"While one bird flu incident might have been interpreted as an isolated occurrence, multiple bird flu incidents increase odds that eventually an outbreak of a newly mutated strain will not be contained. The risk is exacerbated by the ever growing sizes of flocks kept in factory farming production. Dr. Robert Webster of St. Jude Hospital, an expert on influenza ecology, flatly predicts, "We will have a pandemic sometime in the next 10 years. The clock is ticking.""

I resent this. I'm a vegetarian, yet because of other people's demands for chicken, and the meat industries willingness to profit of feeding that demand cheaply, I'm going to be at greater risk to catch some awful flu.

Update: Perhaps I should disclose that I'm really quite sick right now. Might explain the depthy of my irritation.