Global Pandemic

I know the 24 hour news media is on to the next shiny thing, but this is still a story (and a source of important lessons if the Big One ever hits):

The World Health Organization raised its alert on swine flu to the highest level on Thursday, in its first designation of a global pandemic in 41 years.

Calling further spread of the virus “inevitable,” the organization’s director general, Margaret Chan, said, “We are at the earliest days of a global pandemic.” The new H1N1 strain, she said, is “spreading easily from one person to another, and from one country to another” in more than one region of the world.

But the pandemic is “moderate” in severity, she noted, with the overwhelming majority of patients experiencing only mild symptoms and a full recovery, often in the absence of any medical treatment. And scientists are painstakingly tracking its every movement.