Lets talk about the Swine flu...

We(New York City Department of Health)'re expecting this thing to grow exponentially over the next few days since transmission of the virus between the students first diagnosed and their family has been confirmed. The good news is that it doesn't appear to be particularly strong with all cases showing only "mild" illness. There was apparently a death of a 24 month old in Texas from this, but that isn't uncommon with any flu.

The reason for the big concern is that this is a new strain. We don't have a vaccine for it and it moves from human to human quickly and easily. Should this one mutate and become stronger (more deadly), we won't be able to do much to stop it.

Personally, I'm not worried about it. There are 9.1 million people in this city (latest estimate) and only 44 cases have been confirmed as of last night. I have better odds of winning the $200+ million megamillion lottery Friday than getting this flu.

And for those who haven't read it, Steven King's The Stand is a great read.