SO THE World Health Organization has decided swine flu is a full-on pandemic (“Swine flu vacccine gets go ahead”). How worried should we be? After all, most cases so far are mild. The trouble is that pandemic flu is, by definition, a novel influenza virus sweeping the world, so billions are at risk because they have no immunity to it. That is not good news. We know H1N1 can kill, and, unlike ordinary flu, it strikes the young and healthy. Flu pandemics also come in waves, and the next one could be much worse, raising the grim spectre of…
Health
The race to make pandemic vaccine
17 June 2009
