ARE YOU PANICKING YET? WHY AREN'T YOU PANICKING?

Seriously.

91,910,250 links and counting on Google News for "swine flu".

11,383 hits for "swine flu panic".

Number of people actually sick world-wide with the swine flu: 200.

200.

You probably passed 200 people on the way to work this morning.

That's fewer people than work in the average office building.

You've shaken hands with ten times that number of people in your life.

But you'd never think it.

People are seriously, and I don't use this phrase lightly, freaking out. And when you look at the numbers, it's way out of proportion to the risk. To the point where the general public has stopped eating pork out of fear of acquiring swine flu - even though there is zero risk. Egypt has gone so far as to slaughter their pig population to try to stem the spread of the virus - which will make absolutely no difference whatsoever.

The World Health Organization isn't helping temper fears - calling on All Humanity to fight the "coming pandemic".

But you really see the ridiculousness when you look at the media. Things like CBC reporting that the number of cases in Canada have Swelled - to 13. Most news websites have "Outbreak Maps" tracking the epidemic - showing you the grand total of less than 200 cases worldwide.

And so the public listens, and the public reacts, and the public shows their mean, self-preservation focused, ugly side. Refusal to listen to fact or reason. Refusal to take a moment to learn anything for themselves, but rather choosing to simply listen to the hype and regurgitate it, half understood. Daycares turn away children with a sniffle, panicked parents flock to doctors when their kids pick up a run of the mill cold. Realizing you just walked by a person who could possibly be of Mexican or Hispanic descent prompts hysteria and a visit to the ER.

I'm not downplaying the seriousness of an influenza outbreak. The flu isn't fun. Even the plain old flu that makes the rounds every year costs the economy billions and results in hundreds of thousands of deaths per year. In fact, more people have died in the past 24 hours from complications from non-swine flu than have died in total from the actual swine flu.

But when you think about it... that's exactly my point.

How many of these people who are freaking out over the Swine Flu bothered to get a plain old flu jab last winter?

How many of these people who are demanding the borders be closed and the airports be shut down and anyone with a sniffle be forced in to quarantine, how many of them actually regularly wash their hands after being in public?

Joe Q. Public is at far more risk for falling ill from the last two behaviours - hell, he's at more risk than being run over by a bus or hit by lightning - than he is from swine flu at this moment. And yet, the perception of risk is far higher, and the masses panic over a Phase 5 Pandemic alert when it's a safe bet that they don't actually even know what it means.

I'm not saying don't take the risk seriously. Take precautions. Wash your hands. Take your vitamins. Maybe hold off on that Mexican vacation, less so because of the risk than the fact that most of the country is shut down.

But above all? Calm down.

Because the panic is far more dangerous than the bug itself.