Swine Flu--Time for a little perspective

Have you bought your fashionable Swine-Flu surgical mask yet? Have you stocked up on provisions for the eventual downfall of civilization that the flu might cause? Have you cancelled your family vacation or business plans due to this imminent disaster? 

Are you starting to get just a little feeling of déjà vu?

Wasn't SARS supposed to be a devastating pandemic? What about the deadly H5N1 Avian flu virus?

The fact of the matter is that SARS and H5N1 had less impact globally than your typical variant of the common cold (influenza virus). Each year, almost 30,000 people in the U.S. die from the common cold, and the number of deaths, worldwide, is at least 500,000.---that is an average of 82 deaths in the U.S. every day, every year!

...And not a peep from the local news about it...because normal events don't sell papers or airtime. Just a little perspective.

UPDATE:

Well, that didn't take long....Now scientists are saying that the "swine flu" isn't all that the politicians are making it out to be.