Some perspective from Michael O'Leary, CEO of Irish budget airline Ryanair: "Are we going to die from swine flu? No. Are we in danger of SARS? No. Foot and mouth disease? No. Will it affect people flying short-haul flights around Europe this summer? Thankfully, no. It is a tragedy only for people living ... in slums in Asia or Mexico. But will the honeymoon couple from Edinburgh die? No. A couple of Strepsils will do the job."
Have you ever flown Ryanair? Or, for that matter, watched even a second of the numerous Youtubes out there depicting 22-year-old yob-faced pilots boinking poor Secret Hair-wearing Polish stewardesses mid-flight? Of course he's not scared. Still, Stanstead to Berlin for 5 quid. Can't beat it with a stick.
While I blessedly have missed out on the experience, friends who have flown Ryanair tell me that just one short haul flight will expose you to enough bacteria and virus that you should be able to survive just about anything the biosphere throws at you.
Michael O'Leary is a man willing to threaten you with toilet-use charges just to get quoted in the press. Genius of an especially unadmirable kind.
Yep. Cus the CEO of Ryanair has a solid epidemiological background.
Though he is probably right, and I pray he's right. Anyone watch Charlie Rose last night? Most blood-curdlingly terrifying nonsense I've seen on PBS by five or six orders of magnitude. I just now came out from hiding under the bed.