Obligatory swine flu post

• I remember reading about HIV that the disease was postulated to become less severe if it spread less quickly, the reasoning being that in this case evolution would favor a less destructive virus that kept its host alive longer, even at the cost of shedding fewer virus particles at any one time. I've seen no discussion of this concept in the musings over why swine flu is milder in the US than in Mexico, but maybe it plays a part. It might also be an additional reason to attempt to slow the disease's spread.

• Swine flu is one more reason to become vegetarian, I guess. If we didn't eat animals we'd be much less likely to pick up diseases from them.

• I find it annoying that WHO caved to the swine industry and stopped calling swine flu by its proper name, swine flu. Especially since the disease appears to have developed in US swine farms in the 1990s. Just because they caved doesn't mean the rest of us have to, though.

UPDATE: Also, this is inadvisable: