Epidemiologists and their ilk are pretty awesome (sup ChiefsPlanet poster H5N1), and
awesome at their jobs, so it's probably not going to be catastrophic or anything. But yeah, it could get bad, and anything that causes people to die sucks quite a lot.
And seriously, I have a fever and a headache and I've convinced myself I'm a little short of breath. 10% of me is considering the idea that I have a terrible illness.