WORCESTER, Mass. -- Officials in Massachusetts held the first of five conferences in Worcester Monday to devise a plan in the event of an avian flu pandemic.

NewsCenter 5's Janet Wu reported that there is good reason to be concerned about the United States' lack of preparedness for the coming of the bird flu, according to scientists. They said the normal migration of birds could bring the virus into Alaska and down into the contiguous 48 states as early as this summer.

"If avian influenza gets here, I don’t think it presents major a threat to humans unless it does really change," said Dr. Alfred DeMaria, of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

About 200 people worldwide have contracted the so-call bird flu, also known as H5N1. But about 2 billion people were exposed. State officials are more concerned about pandemics in general, which is any new human-to-human influenza arriving in Massachusetts.

"It's not that we're saying it's going to happen this year -- it could happen this year, it could happen next year, it could happen five years from now. But it's going to happen," DeMaria said.

The statistics could be startling. According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, during a six- to eight-week period, 2 million people could become ill, 80,000 people could be hospitalized and as many as 20,000 people could die.

"Do we have enough ventilators in the state? Do we have enough surge capacity with the beds in our state? We are identifying state sites for alternating care. But when you start talking about losing a workforce of about 30 to 40 percent, workplaces take that very seriously," said Health and Human Services Secretary Tim Murphy.

"You're going to hear about social distancing where people may not do handshaking, people may not get in a conference room together," said Christine Glebus, of the New England Disaster Recovery Exchange.

That means employees will be relying more on Blackberries, laptops and working from home, officials said.

"What happens if your school does close? How do lessons take place? Are there other means of lessons, like, can you use your local cable station? Can you send lessons home in advance?" asked John Bynoe, of the Massachusetts Education Department.

There will be four more conferences about avian flu preparedness in the next six weeks. The state will be holding emergency drills by the end of the summer. Vaccines will not be available immediately if a pandemic hits, officials said, and shipments will only be arriving about once a month.