Don't Panic (in big bold letters on the front)

SWINE FLU!!! RUN!!!!
If you watch/listen to/read the news at all, you know about the swine flu pandemic and how it's pretty much the end of the world. It's hit Mexico, then skipped the border into Texas & California and from there has raced like wildfire through Kansas, Ohio & New York. People are dying, and the world may never be the same.

Here's some headlines from the big news sites:

MSNBC:



















CNN:


















FOXNEWS:













2 Headlines with photo & an in the case of Fox, an entire special alert section with 8 or 9 links for information. If it's this bad - deadly and from sea to shining sea - it's time to lock the doors, skip work & school and prepare for the end, right? Well ... let's take a step back.

All of these news agencies aren't exactly Fair and Balanced ®. They're sensationalist news - meaning that they make their money through publicity. More people watching means more revenue. Scaring more people means more people watching. More people staying at home are more people watching TV. They're not going to lie outright, that would be criminal, but they're going to exaggerate by putting out the large n mighty pictures of people at military checkpoints or airports wearing facemasks and of military personnel in biohazard suits - and they're going to grab your attention with death counts and news of the spread of this deadly disease. They want your eyes glued to their screen, and they'll spin the information however they need to get it. When push comes to shove, you can't always trust the news outlets.

All of this is not to say to ignore the threat. This outbreak is dangerous, it is scary, people have died, and it has popped up in some large population areas. You probably already know that the worst thing to do in an emergency is panic - but it seems like that's exactly what the Big News want you to do.

You may ask - "I want to know what's going on, but if I can't trust the big news networks to relay the unbiased news, who can I trust?" I say "Go to the government agencies." The Center for Disease Control (CDC) is at the front lines of this thing in the U.S. The World Health Organization (WHO) is monitoring it on both sides of the US/Mexico border. Both organizations are staffed by top scientists and researchers who are watching and fighting this thing ... and both organizations have very nice web sites.

So - good places to watch for information:
CDC Swine Flu investigation page - lots of good info about what's going on, real counts of infections and links for information on what you can/should be doing as a citizen as well as info that's been sent to doctors and labs who are actively looking for signs of swine flu. It has information on what they've found with this specific strain of flu- i.e. what drugs it is resistant to and what drugs affects it. It also has a link to the WHO who is monitoring spread & casualties worldwide.
Pandemicflu.gov A web site that devotes itself full-time to relaying factual information about flu outbreaks from government agencies. If you want the most reliable information from the best sources, but broken down a little to make it more "digestible", this is the place to go.

Unbiased. Factual. Non-sensationalistic. Ten times more trustworthy than Fox, CNN & MSNBC combined.