The boys who cried flu

What is the worst case scenario for swine flu cases in the United States? About 1,700.

This is not a pandemic, and the ballet of institutional panic in government combined irresponsible media coverage over the last few days has been instrumental in ticking public health as another area where contemporary alarmism, fanned by governments, signposts higher mortality when a crisis finally arrives.

(Philip Chaston, Samizdata)