When Viruses Fly

For years, those in the scientific community have been warning us of the possibility of a deadly new virus that could kill millions, just like the Spanish Flu did nearly a century ago.

Actually, they've sounded the alarm twice this decade with SARS and the avian flu epidemic. Neither of them, fortunately, mutated into mega-pandemic status.

Now it's the H1N1 swine flu that maybe, could be a major killer, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers (?) For Disease Control (CDC). As of May 3, there have been 787 cases worldwide. The death toll in North America stands at 20--nineteen in Mexico, one in the United States. (In Minnesota, there has been one confirmed case and eight are pending.)

Almost as widespread as the disease is the misinformation and paranoia that comes with it.

• If you believe Michele Bachmann, the Republican congresswoman from Minnesota, the first swine flu epidemic in 1976 occurred on President Jimmy Carter's watch. It was actually Gerald Ford, and he came from Bachmann's party.
• According to conservative talk radio, President Barack Obama's refusal to close the U.S.-Mexican border will result in sicker illegal aliens crossing over, and that the swine flu is a plot to take down the U.S. government.
• Vice President Joe Biden, who's been known to make an idiotic comment or two, told NBC's "Today" show that he would not recommend to family members that they use public transportation, fly airplanes or go to Mexico. The White House quickly disavowed Biden's comments. What's next? His predecessor Dick Cheney claiming that H1N1 is an Al Qaeda plot?
• Even the liberal Huffington Post is not immune, so to speak. They've published columns proclaiming that the news media coverage has been overblown, and that the disease itself is no different than the garden variety ones that kill over 30,000 every year in this country. Try telling that to the folks who have suffered already.
• The purveyors of the Other White Meat have leaned on the WHO and the CDC to stop calling the disease "swine flu", claiming that you won't get sick from eating pork (vegetarians beg to differ). Well, what else are you gonna call it? H1N1 isn't exactly catchy (sorry), and "The Mexican Flu" might run into political correctness problems--even though that's where the outbreak originated.

The truth is, we don't know. At this point, world health officials, while encouraged by the relatively low totals, are stressing that we are in the early stages of the outbreak. It might lie dormant during the summer, then come back with a vengeance during the fall and winter. Just as in 1918, And the vaccine might not arrive in time.

Until the "all clear" is sounded, it might be wise to heed the precautions recommended by physicians and government. Because modern medicine can only do so much.