Swine Flu Panic

As the talk of the Swine Flu has drowned out the cries about the economy for a while, there is a great deal of worry and a great deal of misinformation that is being spread. Widespread panic is hitting some areas, as the fears of a quick-spreading pandemic become more pronounced.

This Swine Flu epidemic is reported to have started in Mexico, which is already feeling the brunt of this financially. As we are approaching summertime and people are contemplating destinations, Mexico, already troubled with the news of outbreaks of violence and trouble related to drug trafficking, is looking less and less appealing.

Now, unfortunately the pork industry is also feeling the effects of this pandemic. Pork sales are dropping and the pork industry made it known that they would like this influenza strain to be renamed. In Egypt, the Health Ministry decided that all pigs in the country, roughly 300,000 animals, would be slaughtered! This is despite the fact that there have been no confirmed cases of the swine flu in animals or humans in Egypt. I am not sure if this was to allay the fears of the people or was an action of the Health Ministry panicking, but it is very severe. This seems crazy to me, but as worries rise, things will probably become more worrisome. The biggest spread of this strain is face-to-face contact of people, but the pigs are really taking a beating on this one.

Today, the pandemic flu alert level was raised to Phase V, the second highest level on the scale. This is indicative of more person-to-person infections being seen by the World Health Organization. Surely this is going to continue spreading for at least a while before it ceases, so there is going to be a lot of interest in most every detail that comes out on this for at least the near future...