Today's Papers: One Step Away From Full-On Pandemic

It was supposed to be President Obama's big 100^th-day party, but swine flu has taken over. Everyone leads with the World Health Organization warning that a global pandemic of the A/H1N1 virus appears imminent. The Geneva-based U.N. agency raised its global pandemic alert level to Phase 5 "because the virus appears to be spreading easily person-to-person and cases are appearing that have no link to Mexico," explains USA Today. The next level, Phase 6, means a pandemic is ongoing, and WHO officials made it clear that's where they think we're headed. "All countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparation plans," said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan. The first death outside of Mexico was reported yesterday in Texas, where a 23-month-old boy from Mexico City died this week at a Houston-area hospital. The Washington Post points out that increasing the alert level "could prompt a variety of measures, including more intensive efforts to identify cases and stricter measures to prevent the illness's spread, such as discouraging or banning public gatherings." The number of known cases in the United States is now at least 91 from 10 states, while Mexican officials say as many as 159 people may have died from the virus. The New York Times points out that while the WHO urged calm, Chan "at times spoke as if a pandemic had already begun." Speaking to reporters, Chan said: "The biggest question right now is this: How severe will the pandemic be?" The Los Angeles Times is by far the most optimistic and points out experts seem to be coming to the conclusion that, in its current form, the H1N1 virus "isn't shaping up to be as fatal as the strains that caused some previous pandemics." Although the virus does appear to spread easily, it doesn't seem like its mortality rate will get anywhere close to the typical flu season that kills 36,000 people in the United States. The Wall Street Journal points out that some Mexican doctors believe many more people had the virus than the official numbers indicate, "suggesting it could turn out to be a relatively mild pandemic." But, of course, the flu virus is very unpredictable, and we're still at the early stage, so it could just as easily mutate and become much deadlier.

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