With the recent report of a lab-confirmed case of H1N1 in an Iowa cat which probably got it from its owners, maybe the next question is, "Will you give your pet H1N1 vaccine?" Well, I'm being tongue-in-cheek here. But considering how Americans have increasingly turned pets into quasi-children now, I can imagine many pet owners who previously shrugged off getting a shot for themselves suddenly feeling very desperate to get one for their little precious.

On a different note, anybody else notice this outbreak in Ukraine? Sounds frightening, assuming the reports are accurate. Depending on which source you read, up to 600,000 reported cases in two weeks? Almost 150,000 in 24 hours? Slovakia shut its border crossings. That's a lot of new cases for a country that size.

The samples are still being studied, but one scary possibility is what health authorities have been afraid of--that the relatively stable H1N1 virus has finally mutated. Or it could be another flu strain has stormed onto the world stage, ready to shove H1N1 to the side.

Well, it's just all speculation at this point. There is also talk that with January elections coming up in Ukraine, it's also a politically motivated situation. Kind of a Wag The Dog kind of thing, I guess.