Something that is genuinely scary

Global pandemics seem like something out of the Middle Ages, or perhaps something to follow WWI (as in the Spanish Influenza), but they are out there waiting. I therefore found this a very frightening story:

Vietnam on Friday confirmed its seventh human bird flu death in three weeks, prompting the UN health organization to warn that the virus could turn into a global pandemic that would eclipse the devastation caused by last month's Asian tsunami.

Of course, the mere fact that the UN, an otherwise completely useless and corrupt organization is aware of a possibility of a problem, means that it actually might get fixed. Put another way, one of the few things the UN actually seems to be capable of doing -- probably because it recognizes that disease is no respecter of bribes, corruption and virulent anti-Semitism -- is to corral potentially scary airborne diseases.