There is an up side to being scared, however, if it causes people to take precautions. In this case, the precaution-takers must be the federal government.

Among other things, it should develop a better stockpile of antiviral medicines and vaccine. Remember the vaccine shortage last fall caused by a manufacturing failure in Britain? Americans learned then that shortages can be related to business concerns, such as the lack of profitability and the prevalence of legal liability faced by manufacturers. Liability would be critical to a manufacturer who, in a national health emergency, is called upon to produce massive doses of vaccine as quickly as possible.

Congress can't do the research or manufacturing to supply vaccines, but it can try to create a better environment for those who do.

Another concrete action would be to require all health-care workers to be vaccinated.

Some experts claim that the nation's research priorities also have been skewed by fear of bioterrorism. Last month, about 800 microbiologists signed a letter to the National Institutes of Health complaining that since 2001, tens of millions of dollars in federal research grants have been shifted from bacteria that cause major public health problems to exotic germs like anthrax that would likely be used by terrorists.

The scientists argue that germs causing diseases like tuberculosis and syphilis are much greater threats to the public health than bioterrorism.

Though influenza is caused by a virus, not bacteria, some virologists have expressed similar concerns. Federal officials counter that much of the $1.5 billion being plowed into bioterrorism research is new money, and that some biodefense funding will support work to prevent an influenza pandemic.

The influenza pandemic of 1918 killed 675,000 people in the United States. That dwarfs anything caused by bioterrorism. We should prepare accordingly.