Amanda Ripley Author of The Unthinkable

For an excellent primer on what we are likely to experience this fall, check out David Brown’s Washington Post piece--on the 1957 flu, in all its eerie familiarity. Then, as in now, we were dealing with a new strain of influenza that was highly infectious but not highly fatal. Then, like now, there was a scramble to invent a vaccine--and it came too late for the peak of the season, which may happen this fall, as well. In both cases, the flu targeted young people--unlike normal seasonal flu.

Spoiler…

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One of the most annoying features of a pandemic flu is that it is never officially over. And this one is just getting started. I spent the day submerged in the Flu Summit held at NIH, just outside of DC. I can think of more fun things to do, but it was a helpful primer on where things stand. So I have good news and bad.

Good news: So far, this flu seems pretty stable in the southern hemisphere. It doesn’t seem to be getting more virulent. Which means it probably won’t wipe out all…

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According to CNN, swine flu was mentioned in some capacity in about 2 percent of all Twitter posts Monday. Everyone has something to say, from the serious CDC twitter account to the not-so serious musings of the average American. 

It may be a little early to tell how effective--or diabolical--Twitter will be in disseminating chatter about the flu, but there’s no debating the power of the web to monitor the muses of the masses.  In fact, Seattle-based company, Veratect, Continue Reading »

YOU GOTTA LOVE A POTENTIAL PANDEMIC WITH A NAME LIKE SWINE flu. Takes no prisoners. Very old world.

But so far, the reporting on swine flu has been very new world: reactionary, shallow and lacking context. That’s a shame since context is all that really matters in this story.

So let’s break it down:

The Numbers:

The numbers are not impressive unto themselves so far. About 20 cases in…

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