A time for neither panicmongering nor trivialisation

Swine flu has dominated the headlines for the last week in much of the world, writes the daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung. As opposed to in the past, however, today we are no longer at the mercy of pandemics, the paper writes: "The Geneva-based World Health Organisation rates the danger of a swine flu pandemic as very high. It raised the pandemic alert two times this week. Phase five signals that the experts reckon with an imminent pandemic. ... As opposed to in the Middle Ages, however, when the Black Death and cholera occasionally wiped out entire populations, much of humanity is nowadays no longer at the mercy of pandemics. In this respect, the progress of our civilisation is indisputable. When a dangerous new flu virus emerges, this knowledge should immunise us both against panicmongering and trivialisation."

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