At last report, less than 200 people had died of this latest strain, so I'm not sure if this even qualifies as a legitimate outbreak, let alone a "pandemic," as the media and WHO would have us believe. I realize there are more people who are ill with the virus who haven't died, but Merriam-Webster defines "Pandemic" as, "Occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population." If you listen to the media, we're already there but, according to the WHO's own map, comparatively few have actually been infected, so how, exactly, can this be called a pandemic?

     The word of the day seems to be "overkill;" strains of the influenza virus for which available vaccines currently exist claim over 30,000 lives every year. Yet every news station on the air seems adamant to ignore those statistics, favoring instead to frighten the masses by keeping their microscopes focused sharply on the h1N1 strain and crying, "The sky is falling, The sky is falling!"

     If you want to protect yourself, remember what your mother taught you (I hope); cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze, wash your hands with soap several times a day and don't kiss people who are already sick. I admit that covering your mouth when you cough won't keep you from becoming ill, but it's a practice which isn't very common these days, so I threw it in for good measure.

     If you're already sick, stay home; don't go to school or to work and infect your fellow students or all of your coworkers. Avoid trains, planes and other confined public spaces until you're no longer infectious. Oh, yeah; and cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze to give those around you a fighting chance to avoid getting sick.

     My brother developed a very annoying habit of calling us when he had the flu, just to let us know how sick he was and that he wouldn't be coming over. But then he'd show up at the front door within the hour, citing some unforseen pretext which made his personal appearance necessary. He'd hang around for ten minutes or so before complaining that he needed to go home and lie down, and we'd wake up the next morning with the flu. I finally wised up and stopped opening the door for him, and he suddenly stopped visiting when he was sick, perferring to recuperate at home instead of making a trip to the hospital to have his broken nose reset (that only happened once; I'm not entirely unsympathetic).

     Personally, I'm not buying into the media's hype on this issue, but I have no doubt that the general population is terrified that this tiny virus is coming to get them in the night, hiding under their beds and waiting to grab their ankles the moment they get up to go to the bathroom. If we still had children in the house, however, I might reconsider. All of this doom and gloom 24/7 must be especially hard for parents who don't know what they can do to keep their kids safe.

     Jim

Thanks much Jim!!! Funny about your brother, however many people love to "share the joy" when it comes to colds and flu.

My guess and guess alone is the weakest among us including people who are depressed for whatever reason are the most susceptible. It's always been that way for communicable whatever.

Used to when people had no other choice they'd take care of themselves knowing if they didn't they might not survive. With the advent of antibiotics too much reliance on medical miracle cures has been a poor substitute for common sense sleep and good diet.

Agree with your comments about kids .... if little ones were still in the nest then concern would be tremendously accelerated.