Good post. What is that William Randold Hirst quote... "News is something somebody doesn't want printed; all else is advertising." or similar? Newspapers exist to sell copies and go with it. Even the more sensible broadsheets have been finding ways to panic the public with this Novel Flu thing. My favourite habbit of late, when the topic comes up in conversation, is to predict that around 10,000 people will die of flu in the UK this year. Everybody looks shocked and either panics or accuses me of scaremongering... but according to NHS figures that's roughly how many people have died of flu in the UK every year for the past eight years, so the likelihood is 10,000 will die this year too; only this year it is 'news'. Cytokine storms interest me. I have a condition which research suggests involves cytokine toxicity and over-active immune response. I am curious as to how flu (any flu) will affect people with this condition, as I know a lot of them can't even have the annual flu jab because of the immune reaction from it. My curiosity is mainly academic, as I'm not especially the worrying kind (aside from zombies, obviously), but it's frustrating I can't ask any medical professionals about my wonderings without looking like a complete hypochondriac *sigh*.