Sars didn't spread around the world and kill everyone. Neither did the Avian bird flu. Swine flu won't either. Every year thousands of people die from the flu. Generally it's the weak, the poor and the un-immunized. The media business is so competitive these days that the only way to get attention is by scaring the ignorant and little children with horror stories not unlike that of the Black Death of 1348. If that is to extreme and doesn't fool anyone, it's toned down a little until maybe it can be made somewhat less dramatic like, say, the Spanish flu.Don't believe me? Here, read this!
Mexicans are unfortunately dieing because People from warm climates such as Mexico do not generally have comprehensive flu immunization programs. Especially for the poor. They don't get flu often. When Mexicans, central Americans and others around the equator go North and happen to catch what we would consider a mild case of flu, they get sick. Really sick! Only because their immune system is not used to that.
The first to die were caught off guard and mostly poor. Mexico has as screwed up of a heath care system as we do. If you can't pay, you die. Oh..at the very end of your life they will make a token effort to save you, just so they can say they did, but the general rule is no money, no care. So a lot of these early symptoms were just ignored and, well...
If the Government is going to spend, what now, trillions of dollars bailing out every loser from GM to BAC, I'm pretty sure they would spring for a little therma flu to calm your nerves.
Of course we should always be concerned about events like this, but proportionately.
What does this have to do with the markets? Unfortunately way to much.
The Kiss of Death.
