Pandemic? Not to spread alarm or ...

But, remember - it's just a couple of years ago when H5N1*, or bird flu from China, was all the rage. This time it's H1N1**, porcine and Mexican. In 1918 it was Spanish and human.

It's a flighty swine is the flu.

If you haven't played "Pandemic II" yet, do so now.
Then watch Laurie Garrett give this talk at TED.

Laurie Garrett: What can we learn from the 1918 flu?

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*H5N1 - the H stands for haemagglutinin, a virus protein which helps the virus bind to the outside of a host cell prior to infecting it. The 5 indicates the 5th variant to be discovered. N is for neuraminidase which enables the emergent progeny viruses to pass out of the cell. As for the 1, guess.

**H1N1 - see above, substitute 1 for 5 as needed.