Editorial: The menace is near

Swine flu has breached the imaginary walls of a neighboring county, a hop, skip and a jump away.

An active-duty service member and an 18-month-old child were treated earlier this month for swine flu at the Family Health Center of Woodbridge in Prince William County, according to Army officials.

The two are actually residents of Fairfax, so technically speaking, Prince William County has no confirmed cases. Yet, the mere presence of a carrier in our midst is enough to raise fears. Fortunately, our experience with this recent bout of pandemic frenzy has stripped some of the fright from the situation.

The fear spread like this:

• Swine flu was reported to be killing large numbers of people in Mexico. Talk of a global pandemic began.
• Large swaths of Mexico were shut down to avoid spreading the flu. Media displayed repeated images of Mexican citizens wearing surgical masks.
• Cases of swine flu appeared in the U.S. and elsewhere. People began waiting for the inevitable deaths.
• Comparisons to previous flu pandemics were rampant in the media, and some experts speculated on the possible consequences of this flu using apocalyptical overtones.
• American cases only yielded a few deaths. "Wait and see," people said.
• Deaths remained low in the U.S. "Perhaps it's not as dangerous or as deadly as we thought," people said.

And that brings us to today. Yes, swine flu made a visit to a nearby county, but the two who had it recovered, and there is every reason to expect that if you got it, you would recover too.

Of course, the fear mongering isn't exactly over. Some experts warn that this flu will resurge with greater ferocity during the regular flu season. We, of course, continue to hope that the government and health system continues to take the necessary precautions, but we won't waste too many moments worrying about a swine flu pandemic.

Stafford County Sun editorials represent the opinion of the managing editor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on his page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily the Stafford County Sun.