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 alert: At…

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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 of humanity—not…

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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 the U.S., with no deaths and only one hospitalization.…

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