A Pandemic or a Panic?

Thursday’s lead story in The New York Times was titled, “W.H.O. Alert Says a Global Spread of Flu is Likely.” The article describes the spread of the H1 N1 virus.

Some important things to note for those tending towards panic. The illnesses seem a lot less virulent in the United States than in Mexico. It currently doesn’t seem much different than a normal outbreak of the flu. And scientists don’t know yet whether the pandemic will grow or just fizzle.

The fact that the WHO raised its alert level to 5 should harken back memories of the colored Alert system we used to warn of terrorist attack. It didn’t serve for much except confusion and was employed by elected officials to cover themselves in case of tragedy.

The media, of course, has picked up on the story in a big way, thus amplifying the few facts we know for certain. It’s a made for TV story with the changing number of infected people, and politicians scurrying around trying to prevent another “Katrina.”

And subsequent to this story in the newspaper, Joe Biden nearly (will?) caused a major panic aimed at the transportation industry when he said to avoid all contained spaces such as airplanes and submarines.

The best thing to do: wait and be careful. But I’m not flying anywhere.