Reply #12: It's, hopefully, too temporary a topic to warrant a forum.

[readmoreoften]

If it still isn't eradicated or hasn't died out on its own in a month, I'd say it *may* warrant a forum. Meanwhile, I think people who are claiming *panic* and *hysteria* are really overstating the case. I've come to DU on days when there's almost nothing but Rush-Oxycontin/Pedophilia/Octomom garbage threads and very few people complain about "media hysteria."

It's only logical that people are going to follow a novel flu pandemic. It's interesting for many reasons beyond "PANICK!!1111!!!" New modeling tools are being used, new mapping technologies are being put to use, the replacement of legitimate medical reporters with corporate hacks, real time global surveillance, the subtleties of US/Mexican border relations, the relation between pandemic and national health care: all these are interesting to lay people as well as those in the health/media/education professions.

I see far more "hysteria" about "hysteria" than I do actual hysteria.