Getting ready for winter

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | WHO warns against flu complacency

So, apparently after the building anticipation and some media-induced fear of the last two weeks, we now learn that the coming swine flu pandemic may fizzle out. But (and it's a big but), it may return in the winter in a more deadly form.

Someone better qualified than I, speaking on Radio 4 yesterday, described the ongoing battle within each of us between the primeval part of our brain that says we should stock up on supplies and stay indoors versus the more evolved part (the pre-frontal cortex, I believe) that tells us not to panic and to consider the evidence more calmly. Every time I turn on the news it's like a mini version of the mixed feelings you get when stepping onto a plane to fly at 37000 feet. Rationally you know the chances of disaster are small, but part of you is still asking "what the hell are you thinking!".