Flu Update

No one in Mexico City has died in the last 24 hours from the swine flu, but the total number of deaths is up to 61, out of more than a 1,000 suspected cases. Public events have been canceled, though masses have not. Schools in Mexico City are expected to remain closed for at least the next week. WHO spokesmen have voiced concerns of this outbreak turning into a pandemic, in part because of the flu's tendency to attack healthy people harder than it does the elderly and very young children. 

Symptoms include headache, fever, pain in the eyes, and a cough. If you live in Mexico (or have been around someone who has been to Mexico), health officials here recommend that you go to directly to a hospital if you begin to show said symptoms. They also recommend not shaking hands or kissing on the cheek (or on the mouth, for that matter) when you say "Hi" to someone. I plan to use that advice as an excuse to snub people I don't like for years after the flu panic has passed. 

I'll be interested to see the assessment of the Mexican authorities' response to this. I've not lived through a deadly flu outbreak before, so my frame of reference is limited to Outbreak, but it seems like they've done a good job keeping everyone informed since yesterday morning. Donald Sutherland must not be running things.