Swine Flu? Seriously?

You may have heard the latest buzz: the swine flu is here to kill us all! The toilet paper of record, the New York Times, tells us this:

American health officials on Sunday declared a public health emergency over increasing cases of swine flu, saying that they had confirmed 20 cases of the disease in the United States and expected to see more as investigators fan out to track down the path of the outbreak.

Although officials said most of the cases have been mild and urged Americans not to panic, the emergency declaration frees government resources to be used toward diagnosing or preventing additional cases, and releases money for more antiviral drugs.

Officials said they had confirmed eight cases in New York, seven in California, two in Kansas, two in Texas and one in Ohio, and that the cases looked to be similar to the deadly strain of swine flu that has killed more than 80 people in Mexico and infected 1,300 more.

So far, there have been no deaths from swine flu in the United States, and only one of the people who tested positive for the disease has been hospitalized, officials said.

Still, officials said they expect more severe cases.

Okay, I understand that we want to get on top of this sort of thing before it gets out of hand. But, can we please refuse to allow the getting-out-of-hand prevention from getting out of hand, too?

Seriously.

A whole 20 people have been diagnosed with this swine flu. One of them was even hospitalized.

***GASP!***

I know, it's been deadly in Mexico. But Mexico is a poverty-ridden country with poor health care, lots of unsanitary nastiness, and in the middle of an all-out drug war. The U.S. is in just a wee bit different situation, no?

Before we call this the latest pandemic that will end mankind, can we please just slow down on the sensationalism a bit? Maybe look at some evidence, and apply a little common sense? Calm down, wash your hands, don't kiss your pet pig goodnight (because we all have one, right?). It's not rocket science.

It sounds to me like the federal government is trying to deflect all the legitimate catastrophes that pose real danger to America (you know, little things like Iranian nukes, North Korean nukes, Russian nukes, terrorism, and economic meltdowns) because Obama is such a miserable failure on all fronts. Drumming up a panic on the swine flu is much more manageable, and can be spun as a major health care victory. Thus, since Obama knows so much about health care, we should just go ahead and let him push nationalized health care on the entire country, right? Hmmm...

Just my theory.

There's my two cents.