I think the reason we’re so interested in epidemics has a lot to do with our concerns about globalization. So while I totally understand your skepticism about the panic, I also like to think of it as an attempt at a worldwide “imagined community.” It’s actually very comforting to realize that this is a concern shared by the WHOLE WORLD. Like in an alien invasion movie when the whole planet learns to cooperate in the face of a new enemy, except this time the enemy is agro-capitalism and third world poverty.