There are, however, two consequences of this situation that bother me.
The first is the lack of institutional credibility as perceived by my friends. They range from firefighters, policemen, and even a GP—not the kind of people you would want to alienate in an emergency. A restaurant owner told me he would never report himself to the health authority as that would mean at least two weeks of closure and his business would go to the wall.
Jokers and spoofers are doing overtime on the web. The authorities cried wolf in 2005 and 2009 with influenza and see what you get now.
The second is that once the limelight has moved on, will there be a serious and concentrated international effort to understand the causes and origins of influenza-like illnesses and the life cycle of its agents?
Past form tells me not, and we will go back to pushing influenza as a universal plague under the roof of the hot house of commercial interest. Note the difference: Influenza (caused by influenza A and B viruses, for which we have licensed vaccines and drugs), not influenza-like illnesses against which we should wash our hands all the year round, not just now.
Meanwhile, I still cannot answer Mario’s question: what’s different this time?
