The media, politicians,and people in general LOVE to whip up fear and paranoia. This usually does NOT lead to anything productive.

If you can recall the avian bird flu, panic allowed our government to squander away billions to produce and store a vaccine that will never get used. Realistically, a person is about 300 times more likely  to get struck by lightning than to contract a deadly Avian or Swine Flue virus (no joke).

 The threat of a pandemic hitting the population is real but also unavoidable. However, it is unrealistic to believe that by reacting to every "new strain" of flu and throwing money at it, or even washing your hand an extra time will reduce the chances of it happening or better prepare us for it at all. A common staff infection ,often contracted in hospitals, will result in several 10s of thousands of deaths every year. To ignore something as real and deadly as that in favor some something "exotic" like the swine flu strain which is less likely to strike you than lightning (seriously), is ridiculous.