Madam, - If we are "overdue" a flu pandemic, as the experts tell us, simply because we have not had one for 80 years, then we must be even more overdue a famine, since we have not had one since the 1840s.
Flu killed large numbers in 1918 because populations were malnourished and weakened by war. Europeans today are incomparably healthier and better cared for. Surely a pandemic on the scale of 1918 is impossible. - Yours, etc,
MARK SUGRUE, Caherdavin, Limerick.