Do they treat it with oinkment?

Cases of swine flu have been reported in North Devon and in some quarters there seems to be an air of panic. People are demanding to know where the confirmed cases are so they can avoid those areas. I am willing to accept that I can be complacent, but I'm not sure what good it would do to lock yourself away in isolation. I suppose if you had absolutely no contact with anyone else - ever - then it might just stop you getting infectious diseases etc but you'd probably die of boredom. As it is, the chances are you could have contact with a person with swine flu and never realise. It seems that many people who contract swine flu are ill and then recover. Those who die often have a pre-existing condition. The thing is it will either kill you, or it won't kill you. Or you might not get it at all. And that is pretty well the story of your entire existence.

We assess risk according to our preferences. Deaths from car crashes are, as we know, not uncommon in this country. But how often do you get in a car and, before the vehicle has even moved off, start worrying that you are going to die? I hope the answer is never, because if you did start worrying like that your life would not really be worth living. And yet in North Devon I can take you to numerous places where people have died in their cars. Very often they are easy to spot because mourners continue to place flowers at the scene. Despite these sombre warnings, we continue to drive our cars because we want to/need to, and some people do it in a worse way than others.

What are all those people who race to overtake on the North Devon Link Road trying to achieve. Are they so important, and their task so vital, that they must drive to the limits of other people's willingness to make way for them. Often you catch up with them at the next roundabout where they are forced to wait before continuing on their headlong transit along the link road.

So, anyway, swine flu is a risk, but one to be kept in perspective. Hundreds of people across the UK die each year from the flu which comes round annually and, by and large, that death toll passes us by unremarked upon. Having said all that, I still really hate it when people sitting behind me on the bus or in the supermarket queue cough over me.

And if you think the title of this post is flippant then bear in mind I was going to try to weave in the gag about flu which goes something like: Doctor to patient: 'Have you flu?'. Patient to doctor: 'No, I came by bike'. Yes, hysterical, I know.