Where I live, serious earthquakes are virtually unheard of, but an pandemic can reach everywhere. That makes it interesting to a forum like this: everyone can join in.

I think that's a good analogy, but for the opposite reason. The pre-Y2K hype was a good thing because it worked. A lot of people worked really hard and averted the disaster. Without the media hype, that might not have happened, because people might not have appreciated how serious the danger was and been willing to pay for the work needed to avert it.

Similarly the swine fever hype, although not directly relevant to most people, was/is relevant to folk in the health and research industries. The current strain is mild, but there seems to be a real chance it will come back again stronger next winter. It's happened before. We have a few months grace to develop vaccines and other treatments, and it's important that we do that. Not we you-and-I, but we as a community. Ordinary doctors at least need to know what the symptoms are so they can react appropriately when patients present. And so on.

Historically there have been major flu epidemics within the last 100 or so years. We have better science and technology now so maybe such will never happen again. If that's the case, it'll be because we used it; because of hard work of many individuals.