Swine Flu's Tip of the Iceberg?

Swine flu (H1N1) is starting to hit young people hard. According to the Washington Post today, 49 children have died in the U.S. so far. If you don’t get flu and pneumonia vaccine shots this year (for you and your children), and then get vaccinated against swine flu when that shot becomes available, you are being outrageously irresponsible towards your community and family. Money quote from the Post article:

At the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, some children have gotten so sick that they have required intensive care, and that includes some children with no other health problems. “We have some very sick children,” said Ina Stephens, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the hospital. “I’m concerned it’s just the tip of the iceberg — that we’re just seeing the beginning of it.”

Wash your hands frequently through the day and don’t be glib about this. Pandemics call for intelligent, moral, and responsible actions from people. Will you rise to the existential occasion—or treat the threat as a joke because nothing bad has happened to you yet, and you don’t have children?