Chicken Little

Now, Betty Lou is not known for being an alarmist. A bit dramatic at times? Yes, absolutely. And, well, I don't think this Swine Flu "situation" is going to run amuck here in the good old U S of A, HOWEVER ... just in case I'm wrong and for the record, I just want to jot down a few little things to refer back to someday.

The news aspect of the swine flu took hold over the weekend which means it really didn't take hold because it was the weekend and news only happens Monday thru Friday in the real media savvy world. During the day, Saturday, the story grew legs. That's when we heard that close to fifty people had died from the flu in Mexico and that 8 students in a school in NYC had confirmed cases of swine flu. By Sunday, close to 80 in Mexico had died and there were 20 confirmed cases in the US in 5 different states. Today, the death toll in Mexico was well over 100 and the 8 infected in that school in NYC had grown to 28. This is what the CDC posted as of 1:00 today...

California - 7 cases
Kansas - 2 cases
New York City - 28 cases
Ohio - 1 case
Texas - 2 cases
TOTAL COUNT - 40 cases

Much speculation about what could happen and much more speculation about whether the media is taking the reporting too far and alarming people unnecessarily. Perhaps. I hope that's the case. I hope we can all, after a period of time has passed, mock and criticize the media for it's "Sky is Falling" messages. Yes, I do hope that's what we can do.

It certainly beats the alternative.