jlovett:

While most people have been worrying about the obvious effects of an H1N1 epidemic — you know, stuff like people dying, vaccine shortages, overcrowded hospitals, that kind of thing — the Government Accountability Office has identified a terrifying new threat linked to the flu: It will bring the Internet to its knees, as millions of bedridden patients spend all of their idle hours online.

According to a report by the oversight agency:

Concerns exist that a more severe pandemic outbreak than 2009’s could cause large numbers of people staying home to increase their Internet use and overwhelm Internet providers’ network capacities. Increased demand during a severe pandemic could exceed the capacities of Internet providers’ access networks for residential users and interfere with teleworkers in the securities market and other sectors.

The 77-page report recommends that one effective way to deal with the coming flu-driven Internet meltdown would be “voluntary public reduction of Internet use,” including asking those sick, bored, bedridden patients to “limit video streaming, gaming and peer-to-peer and other bandwidth-intensive applications during daytime work hours.” (consumerist)