Swine Flu

As if things aren't bad enough already, we now have a new swine flu to worry about.

Instead of the summer of shark attacks, this looks to be shaping up as the summer of flu.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -- A deadly strain of flu never seen before has killed as many as 61 people in Mexico and has spread into the United States, where several people were reported ill.

Mexico's government said on Friday that at least 16 people have died of the disease in central Mexico and that it may also have been responsible for 45 other deaths.

The World Health Organization said genetic tests of the virus in 12 of the Mexican victims had the same genetic structure as a new strain of swine flu, designated H1N1, seen in seven people in California and Texas.

Because there is clearly human-to-human spread of the new virus, raising fears of a major outbreak, Mexico's government canceled classes for millions of children in its sprawling capital city and surrounding areas.

"It is a virus that mutated from pigs and then at some point was transmitted to humans," Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said.

It first looked mostly like a swine virus but closer analysis showed it is a never-before-seen mixture of swine, human and avian viruses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

...The outbreak jolted residents of the Mexican capital, one of the world's biggest cities and home to some 20 million people.

One pharmacy ran out of surgical face masks after selling 300 in a day.

2009 has been such a nightmare. I'm getting really fatigued from the assaults on our democracy and economy, courtesy of Obama and his administration.

Now there's concern of a pandemic?

Wonderful.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

But don't panic. Just buy a surgical face mask before they sell out.