Poor Pork

With the Swine flu aka H1N1 virus outbreak being the biggest talk of the news this past week, I figured I had to write at least one thing about it. According to the World Health Organization website, it stated that all countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparedness plans. Now that the flu outbreak has become a global pandemic as declared by the WHO, the people I feel the worst for are the pig farmers (I feel bad for the people that are sick too).

China, Russia and South Korea have banned imports of some North American pork, despite the fact that it has been confirmed that the flu is not spread through the meat. The US is one of the world's biggest pork exporters so the pork industry has really taken a hit. At a time when our economy is already performing so poorly, this is just sad.

Meanwhile, poor Mexico too. It has been said that tourist are leaving, countries are telling their people to cancel all plans to Mexico, Hollywood has canceled their movie premieres, and well, their people are dying. Mexico City has basically shut down. According to the AP, there are a confirmed 168 deaths in Mexico and the number of cases are still rising. Sad.

However, I don't think it needs to be such a big deal. People get the flu all the time. We had the first confirmed case in Phoenix yesterday. I'm not panicking. I mean I know people are dying from it, but the virus is treatable so as soon as you think you are getting the flu, don't go spreading it around, go see a doctor and get some meds. Nothing to freak out too much over. T and I are even going to Mexico at the end of May for our cruise. We're not scared.

[image via AP]