• The first 27 minutes of Monday’s broadcast of PBS’ The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer was devoted completely to coverage of the Swine Flu.
• This morning I accessed Bloomberg.com only to discover that four of their nine Breaking News articles were related to Swine Flu.
• One can not read a newspaper or turn on the radio and TV without being bombarded with asinine coverage of this as-of-yet non-event.

Make no mistake, a global pandemic is inevitable and overdue.  It may come in the form of some exotic strain of flu as we experienced in 1918.  It may as easily be a man-made disaster born from irresponsible abuse of antibiotics or other life-saving drugs.  Drug resistant strains of TB and MRSA being two candidates.

But the Government and media reaction to this event is disgusting.  The Government loves the potential threat because it can spring into action, pretend to be useful and justify its existence, all the while keeping voters safe.  The media can not promote the possible danger enough.  Looming disasters represent the rare occasion when the media has something substantive to talk about and viewers are willing to pay attention.

I feel badly for those Mexicans who have succumbed to the disease.  It is a tragedy.  But it is no more of a tragedy than the 100 people a day, on average, that die in the U.S. alone of regular influenza.

To date, not a single American has died of Swine Flu.  More Americans have died from bee stings, dog bites, lightning strikes, shark attacks, and Freddie Mac related suicides during the past week than from the Swine Flu.  American deaths are likely, but they need to be put in proper perspective.

Swine Flu is contagious and there is the potential that this could be “The One”.  But there is also the potential that a meteor is about to eradicate human-kind.  But for several bad movies on the subject, the Government and media seem disinterested in protecting us from this potentiality.  Killer, drug resistant TB is reality, spreading daily and could wipe out millions, yet its coverage is sparse, incomplete and in many cases inaccurate.  

I suspect that the ultimate cure for the Swine Flu in America will be similar to that for the recently hyped SARS and Avian Flu.  A day off from work, chicken soup and plenty of Gatorade.  And even if the disease is more virulent than I suspect, the recurring alarmism of the Government and media is counterproductive. 

When exactly did measured, common sense become a casualty of big Government and the 24-hour news cycle?