Oink

May I nominate Michael O’Leary as the biggest swine on earth? The Ryanair chief’s latest pathetic bid for attention came in the form of a pronouncement that swine flu is “only a tragedy for people living in slums in Asia or Mexico.” People who live in other parts of the world aren’t going to die, he stated.

Mr. O’Leary should stick to what he knows best: running a very bad airline. He is not an epidemiologist or a member of the medical profession. Flu viruses are highly unpredictable; they can start out mildly, then roar back with a vengeance, as did the 1918 version that infected a third to a half of the world’s population. In 1973, the so-called London flu, a mutation of the Asian strain, hit Northern California very hard. I came down with it and developed pneumonia. I was out of commission for a month. I consider myself lucky, since many who developed pneumonia died. Let the record show that I was not a slum-dweller.

Mr. O’Leary also needs to be reminded that not all people in Mexico are slum-dwellers. And even those who live in poor neighborhoods are human beings, which is more than I can say for him.