How did I do? I'll tell you next spring.

No, seriously. Although I never got into pandemic mode anyway, I think H1N1 is far from over, although you would think so considering how it has pretty much dropped off the cable news radar except for quick counts of new cases.

H1N1 probably isn't disappearing any time soon. The Southern Hemisphere could get hammered as it enters their normal flu season. And who knows what happens next fall when we enter the next flu season. I'm by no means mentioning these things to scare anyone but just to point out to our attention-deficit, 10-second sound bite culture that things are not necessarily over yet.

Actually, not even over in the Northern Hemisphere yet. We'll most likely go to Stage 6, which may just be a formality and not really mean anything if the flu stays mild. But oh, the flurry of news coverage for that milestone! It's official--pandemic is upon us! "Sanjay, what are the chances that human civillization can get through this? Will we go the way of the dinosaurs? Back after these words from our sponsors..."

Beer, ammo...and masks. More masks!

And don't watch so much cable news. 24/7 news coverage is terrible for new, rapidly evolving stories where there isn't much new info to report every 15 minutes. All that continuous coverage just freaks people out unnecessarily, and sometimes anchors do a Biden and just say something that they really shouldn't because they're just trying to fill up air time.

One thing that really hit home this time is the reality that the pandemic could be in our midst literally overnight. This H1N1 story happened so fast! With SARS and avian flu, it felt like we had warning because things started in Asia and we had time. But with H1N1, a quick road trip from Mexico and my own neighbor could be giving it to me! Cases just popping up in California, Texas, New York all at once. That's rather sobering.

Actually, the next pandemic could even start in the US. No reason why it couldn't, which is why putting too much focus on Asia is something to be careful of. It's like that adage about the military always getting ready to fire the last war.