I see absolutely no point in freaking out over everything that could possibly happen to me or my family. I absolutely think that the media is blowing this way out of proportion. People are sick all the time, thousands, millions, flus, colds, AIDS, cancer, blah blah blah blah blah, but because this piggy flu is new, people are curious and will find out whatever they can, hence: read and watch the news and the media is going to milk it for all it's worth. My 7 year old son has a very mild cold, and my daughters teacher took it upon herself to print out an information sheet on the swine flu and give it to him, so now my daughter draws the conclusion that her brother could have this terrible sickness that people can DIE from, and my son comes walking in like "don't touch me, stay away, I have THE DISEASE!" Seriously people, thanks for freaking my kids out. Are we just so bored we need to make everything into a tragic drama? I'm all about protecting my kids, but let's not overreact here.

I agree with Heather and Rebecca regarding the media and their sensational coverage of the "swine flu" (one of the reasons why I limit my exposure to mainstream media). But I can also agree with Maggie and admit that yes, as a parent of a young child, I can't help be a little freaked out. I think it's important to stay informed, but with this wonderful resource we call the Internet, we can choose where we get our information. And we can also decide that we won't succumb to the hysteria.

Frankly, I'd trade my chances with this flu for the six months of Parvovirus B19 I have to look forward to, thank you very much. Nothing like sitting in a restaurant at 40 and having your mom notice your "slapped cheek" rash. Oh, and for the record, my folks did not go to Cabo. All the schools and businesses are closed, and travel's restricted. No choice, really. P.S. I may regret telling you this, but I was totally smashed when I recorded this. the Love Your Veggies Retreat folks had just thrown a private dinner at Oprah's chef's restaurant, and there were tons of pass-arounds with goat cheese in it. I drank instead.

Arrrgh. The media is fully to blame for blowing this wayyyyy out of proportion. Sure, I'm happy to be informed and to take precautions if necessary, but come ON. Like the commenter above, my 5 year old came home from preschool saying that she never wants to go to Mexico again (we had an idyllic vacation in Baja a year ago) because she doesn't want to get swine flu. Again, I say argh.

I'm with Maggie and Daphne on this: there's little harm in being cautious. I wouldn't be worrying at all, really, if my neighbor and her kid did not just go to Mexico. "My mom said that there's no swine flu where we're going," the 10-year-old said of her mom who smokes around her everyday because, you know, cancer wouldn't strike THEM, either. There was no swine flu in CANADA when they were leaving, either. Gee, maybe it's gonna spread while you're in Mexico, hmmm? Maybe there are some people who have it who haven't even gone to the hospital. Viruses SPREAD, geniuses. (Excuse my misery. I have a bad flu. Oink. No, really, I'm very sick and keep getting worse everyday and it's really getting my panties in a bunch.) So, this friend of my kids' is going to be on their bus and all and I feel like the bus driver should not let her on for three weeks or whatever the incubation period is. Then a part of me thinks it would be better to get it now when it's mild than in the fall when they think it might warp into this horrifically deadly 1918 virus. If it doesn't warp into anything, then I'm not worried. It's just a flu. If it does, I'm not super confident about the efficacy of a new vaccine since they keep emphasizing that "we've never seen anything like this! Ahhhh!" In the meantime, we have N95 masks, oil of oregano, homeopathic flu stuff that's surprisingly amazing, and the Mormon priesthood. :-D

I find the swine flu hysteria so ridiculous that I finally stopped lurking and signed up to comment. So hi! heh. The fact of the matter is, like Mindy said in the video, tens of thousands of people die of regular old flu every year in the US ALONE. Over 10K people have died this year from the regular flu already. The worldwide yearly mortality rate on the flu is in the hundreds of thousands. There is a new strain of the flu every year. And yet every year during flu season people don't flap their arms wildly and sequester themselves during the winter. I understand why moms of kids in the 'let me lick that stranger plz' age group are worried per se, but to date swine flu is exponentially less virulent than regular flu. I do understand why the CDC & WHO are making a big deal of it... In impoverished areas, this kind of disease runs rampant, and in the absence of sanitation or half-decent medical care it is very difficult to control. But then, if you're receiving minute-by-minute updates on CNN.com you can probably wash your damn hands every so often. Crisis Averted. Seriously.

I'm not overly worried about the swine flu. I understand why it's getting massive attention: it's new. I think it's GOOD to get information, especially about something we've never heard of before. It's like the other big health scares mentioned here... and we can tuck away that information for future use (if EVER needed). But I think the perception of, "Oh my, this is the end of the world!" is silly. We need to take a deep breath, use common sense and try not to let it affect every move we make.

I'll start freaking out when Jeeps are roaming the streets with space-suit wearing grown men sticking out of their roofs, shouting through megaphones: "Stay indoors. Violators will be considered enemies of the state."

Well, I've been back and forth on this. As a salmonella survivor, I tend to freak out whenever something like this comes up in the media. However, with a college degree in journalism, I also know that the media tends to make things seem more important and urgent than they actually are. Like some others, SARS, bird flu, mad cow, etc. didn't worry me, but that was pre-salmonella, and pre-kid. So, the swine flu sort of got me thinking. Especially when I heard local schools were being shut down (we're in San Francisco) and that a toddler had died in Texas. I'm thinking, DIED. A baby DIED. That'll scare the pants off any new mom, I'm positive. It's normal to worry, and to express that worry. It's not normal to quarantine your family for weeks. Unless you actually know someone personally who got sick. The logical part of my brain is saying, it's treatable, it's avoidable, just wash your hands and it will be ok. But, then there's that little voice in the back of my head going, "OMG the baby was touching the shopping cart today and then he sucked his thumb and is that poopy diaper normal or diarrhea and am I coughing a little bit????" It just freaks me out to think that he could be really sick with something and I might not know. Hate to bring it up again, but that's exactly what happened with me and the salmonella. I was sent home by a doctor who said I had the stomach flu, and I just needed sleep and Gatorade. 6 weeks, 20 expensive tests and an arthritic knee later, they determined it was salmonella. I'm just saying, be on the look out. Don't think that just because the media makes a big deal of things that once in a while it's not actually a big deal. None of us is infallible.