Most media outlets are milking the potential of a swine flu epidemic for maximum effect, so it is difficult to gauge the severity of the infection, especially considering that many suspected cases are simply assumed to be swine flu. The mayor of Mexico City, where the infection is believed to have originated, has canceled "hundreds of public events from concerts to sports matches...to keep people from congregating and spreading the virus in crowds." Also, soldiers and health workers are patrolling Mexico's capital looking for infected people and handing out surgical masks.
The most chilling aspect of this whole story is the what-if scenario: What if the infection were 10x more lethal then it is believed to be? The act of canceling a concert and giving a child a mask would seem completely futile, wouldn't it? How would the world's governments respond? The answer: not quickly enough. Not because these institutions lack initiative, because there are too many of us transporting from city A to city B, from state C to state D, from country E to country Z. You get the point. And if you don't, watch Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later.
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Google's real-time swine flu map (a purple marker designates a confirmed or probable infection; pink is a suspected infection; yellow is negative; and fatal cases have no dot.):
View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map
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