"bird flu movie arouses ’panic’ in US public"

Consider the source......

The only panic I see is trying to breath from all the laughing.

I'm picturing the Chinese people thinking that we're grabbing shopping carts from each other and fighting in grocery stores over bottles of water and the last few bags of cheese curls.

Yup I went to Safeway this morning for some of that $19..00 coffee, no mobs, no panic, full shelves, and everybody equally sedated...

It amazed me that when a hurricane approaches Florida, Wal-marts number one selling item is not water or food.

 

It is beer.

You know JaxMax, beer is watered down food, and probably quite low on my prep list, BUT I do enjoy a cold one now and then...I've never been in a hurricane, but have been in a 7.8 earthquake, dodged a few tornados, and live in wild fire country. You just can't have enough preps... 

Since the movie completely bombed, ratings-wise (like, maybe one-eighth the audience of American Idol and 5th-rated show in the timeslot), can't really see where the panic would come from.  Maybe if American Idol were preempted we would see some signs of panic.

I had some hopes that the movie would promote a greater desire to prepare among "the people," and it probably did for a few folks, but nowhere near as much as I'd hoped.  It just reinforces my belief that 90%  of the population just cannot or will not come to terms with the possibility that something might "go seriously wrong."  They think I'm nuts, I think they're nuts, I hope they're right.

"the film is ... exceptionally well-made "

I work for the county where I live. The day that ABC was aring the movie , the county executive issued an email to all county employee's. It pretty much ran down the county's opinion of what they though the movie was trying to convey (i.e. fictious account of a worst case scenario) However, they did give information about hand washing and such and a link to pandemicflu.gov, if people wanted more information.The jist of the email, I believe, was to keep people from panicing

I finally viewed the movie last night. Our local ABC channel covered severe weather the night it aired, but a friend in another state taped the show and mailed it to us.

While I would agree with much of the criticism about carelessness of the health professionals in the film and some of the acting was less than great, I thought it was a worthwhile movie.

The friend who sent the tape to us thought the movie was too far fetched. LOL! I'm afraid that her opinion is probably the norm. Most people simply can't envision things being as bad as the movie depicted.
Those of us prepping, know that it could and probably would be far worse than the movie.

I think the movie touched on a lot of important points, like nothing is made here anymore. Our lack of self-sufficency as a nation will make us more helpless in times of disaster.

While I don't envision most states or communities fencing off neighborhoods and handing out food and water, I felt that the film was only showing the approach taken by a single governor. He had a plan and thought it was the right plan until realizing that it was a mistake.

I doubt that many neighborhoods would come together to take care of each other and look after their own, but there are still scattered, close-knit neighborhoods where people really do look out for each other. The one we live in now was like that several years ago. The dynamics have changed as many of the elderly, long time residents have passed.

I did find it odd that everyone still had neatly mowed lawns and utilities pretty much remained available throughout the ordeal, but if the majority thought the film was far-fetched, they'd have viewed it as impossible if it had honestly represented what's likely to occur.

Having read so many comments about the movie before seeing it, made all of the mistakes stand out more than they might have otherwise. We both thought it sugar-coated the truth, but attempted to touch on most of the issues.

I think what bothered me the most about the film was the final scene of migratory birds flying to a new destination. Seemed like they were leaving the impression that birds were the problem.

Even my friend who thought it was too far-fetched has decided to start picking up a little extra after seeing it. I don't think it's one of the better films I've seen, but it wasn't that bad and at least tried to shake people up a little. It's just unfortunate that it was scheduled opposite one of the most popular shows.
We don't watch American Idol, but I know that most people do.