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I was reading an interesting interview with Michael Cherkasky, Chief Executive of Marsh & McLennan, in the Daily Telegraph.

Marsh & Mclennan are the worlds large insurance brokers so Michael Cherkasky is accustomed to evaluating risk. He feels that there is a strong chance that there will be an influenza pandemic at some stage, but that avian flu, will probably not be it.

What he fears though, is the spread of a virulent disorder that he terms “infodemic”. With global communications being so fast and available, information can spread rapidly causing needless consternation across a number of countries.

Global stockmarkets, supply chains and “just in time” manufacturing systems are all sensitive to buyer sentiments so fast travelling news can have a large impact on economies throughout the world - even though the actual substance of the news is very minor.

For example, Michael Cherkasky quotes Sars, which actually killed fewer than 1000 people, but triggered global costs of $40bn. The “infodemic” created more problems than the actual disease itself.