Swine Flu - Level 5 epidemic?

Do we really think that this is causing the same level of mayhem that was afforded to the SARS epidemic?  The facts of this flu are as follows.

As of April 30,09:

• 150 Confirmed deaths - all in Mexico except for one 23 year old Mexican boy who died in Texas after coming to visit family
• No one outside of Mexico has been sick enough to be hospitalized (except the mexican boy listed above)
• The UK, Canada and (hopefully the USA) have more than enough TamiFlu to vaccinate - and this has been shown to work against this strain of Swine Flu

There have been no mass deaths like there was with SARS.

The swine flu was reported and action has been taken - unlike with SARS.

The borders to Mexico are effectively getting closed down with many major tour operators, cruise lines and airlines canceling all flights, tours and ports of call effective immediately.

We are aware that this can become a global pandemic, but why make people paranoid?

One travel agent remarked that "I am getting calls from clients that haven't left yet, stating that they think they have this flu.  They haven't been out of the country in over a year."  **At this point in time, there were no confirmed cases in Canada.**

We can rest assured that this over-reaction to the swine flu (with travel to many destinations, not just Mexico being cancelled) our global recession is only going to worsen over the next couple of months - a situation that no one will be happy to see.