What to Say?

Although it is dominating the news, the influenza outbreak doesn't make a particularly good op-ed topic, because a) analysis is far less important than real news, and b) there's nothing to analyze. We're all anxious and unsure (people in Mexico City certainly even more so), and beyond that insight, there's not a whole lot left to say. Plus, DF commentators who write reported columns have the added disadvantage of most of the city hiding at home. 

Ricardo Raphael's innovative approach to this dilemma was to track the reaction to the epidemic on the internet. A couple of the more memorable comments: 

Various believers in conspiracy theories assured that it was the government of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa --with its infinite political calculations-- that infected us was this bacteria to distract us while the elections pass, the economic crisis is resolved or the military catches El Chapo Guzmán. 

[Break] 

Toñitito: "The swine flu arose from Mexicans being so exposed to the electoral spots from the IFE."

Christos: "If Andrés Manuel López Obrador was president of Mexico, he would surely have freed us from this epidemic." 

El Juan: "If the government doesn't cure you of swine flu, they should pay you."