Swine Flu infects the media

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Swine Flu is highly contagious among journalists. In fact, this news story seems to have mutated in the media population and is now more viral than the virus itself. With 40 cases reported by the CDC in the U.S. to date--20 of which have already fully recovered--my research suggests a probable 1:100 patient to journalist ratio.

• How has Swine Flu impacted the IT industry and your company's travel or business in Mexico? An IT industry reporter wants to know.


• A trade show industry publication wants to hear from meeting and event planners who have cancelled an event because of Swine Flu.


• How are retailers keeping the devices customer touch germ-free? A retailing trade reporter is on deadline and needs your 'real-world' stories.


• Producers with a cable TV news channel want U.S. tourism experts to talk to about travel impacts.

That last query was 7 hours old. By now, I assume, any pundit worth his or her weight in bacon would have porked up their bio to emphasize expertise in pandemics. And bookers are probably batting experts away like so many malaria-infected mosquitos (malaria, by the way, kills over 850,000 people per year).

So, what's your Swine Flu story? As much as it pains me to ask, if you've got an angle on this story dominating the news cycle today (and for the foreseeable future), clearly there's some media very anxious to talk to you. And, in their time of suffering, you would be bringing them comfort!

And, if you've got some anxieties about Swine Fluenza, the good news is that you can be a shut-in and still stay connected thanks to social media tools, like the CDC's Twitter feed (probably the only Swine Flu source you should pay heed to on Twitter) or, my favorite, this Google map which is tracking and plotting cases worldwide.

By the way, 600 Tweets including the #swineflu hashtag were posted in the past few minutes as I wrote this.