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This photo, published in a NY Times article at the beginning of the 2009 swine flu “pandemic” captured, in my opinion, the basic essence of the 2009 influenza season – it was relatively “mild” in that there were no “excess” influenza deaths, especially in the elderly (65+) population, but there seemed to be a very high attack rate in children.

If WHO had not declared the influenza outbreaks in Mexico in April and in the USA in June, that were attributed to a “new or novel” influenza virus as a potential global health emergency of international concern, this “pandemic” would have been handled as all “seasonal” influenza epidemics have been managed world-wide – basically, not very well, but NOT as a global health emergency!