The Local newsletter is your free, daily guide to life in Colorado. For locals, by locals. Sign up today!
The Colorado Department of Health confirmed Thursday that Colorado has two confirmed cases of swine flu, according to 7News. Signs of fear have been evident as the “worried well,” patients who are just fine but think they might be sick anyway, fill up urgent-care clinics and overload phone help lines, according to another 7News story. President Barack Obama said yesterday that he will do “whatever it takes” to handle the fast-spreading swine flu, which is now globally at phase 5–just one level below a full-blown pandemic health emergency, according to USA Today. Still, there are signs of overreaction, including in Egypt, where officials plan to cull 400,000 pigs in a plan rejected as wrongheaded by United Nations officials, Al Jazeera reports, noting that although Muslim culture views pigs as unclean, no pigs in Egypt have the virus. In the last century, the world has faced several pandemics, including in 1918, when the Spanish flu killed up to 50 million people, writes CNN in a retrospective look at pandemics. Ben Sherwood of the Survivors Club, meanwhile, writes about ways to improve your chances of surviving in the event of a pandemic at The Huffington Post. By the way, you can’t get swine flue from eating pork, a myth among many that The Today Show debunks while offering tips on how to protect yourself. Locally, businesses in Colorado Springs are preparing–others not so much, according to the Gazette.