I honestly think that it's just a media hype to get people to pay attention to them at the moment. I can forsee it getting bad, but then it would have to be able to spread directly from person to person (efficiently) AND become less virulent. If the H5-N1 kills off too many humans, it won't survive. The only way for it to survive (and therefore, create a pandemic) is for it to only kill a few humans. 
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Itaque incipet.
All that glitters is not gold but at least it contains free electrons.