I totally agree with you on that, Ebbie.

The latest on this, though, says it is not easily passed from human to human:

Why bird flu is harder to catch than a cold
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 23/03/2006)

The reason the deadly H5N1 bird influenza virus is hard for people to catch and spread has been found.

Although more than 100 people have been killed by the avian influenza virus, the fact that it does not spread easily to other humans has been a biomedical puzzle. Now, a study of cells in the human respiratory tract reveals a simple anatomical difference in the cells of the system that makes it difficult for the virus to jump from human to human.
        
Bird flu factfile

The finding, reported today in the journal Nature, is important because it demonstrates a requisite characteristic for the virus to equip itself to easily infect humans, the key development for the virus to become a pandemic.

A group led by University of Wisconsin-Madison virologist Prof Yoshihiro Kawaoka, showed that only cells deep within the respiratory system, rather than the nose or throat, have the surface molecule or receptor that is the key that permits the avian flu virus to enter a cell.

"Our findings provide a rational explanation for why H5N1 viruses rarely infect and spread from human to human," the authors report.

The upshot of the finding is that existing strains of bird flu must undergo key genetic changes to trigger a pandemic.