Many people are telling us we should stop going about our daily activities because of the Swine Flu.

Vice President Biden said in an interview this morning that we should not take the subway and shouldn't fly.

Also a local school was closed here in Nashville yesterday because one student was diagnosed with this new flu.  The private school even went as far as to cancel two school trips plus their annual art show which is a huge fundraiser.

Is it time to panic?

I  don't think so.

I like to go back to history every time I'm faced with a present dilemma which confuses me.  That's because I believe history tends to repeat itself. 

My grandfather used to tell dramatic stories of the 1918 flu epidemic.   That flu killed my grandmother's sister,  two of her children plus a third unborn child.  They were all buried together in the same casket. 

They said people would go to work in seemingly good health in the morning and would be brought home dead in the afternoon.

Neither one of my grandparents contracted it.

However, my grandfather died of a short bout with some kind of flu on Christmas Day, 1974.  Ironically, it was also his 84th birthday.

My point is that unfortunately people become ill with flu every year and some of them die as a consequence.  Will this flu be different?

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One news story pointed out that scientists believe, as of this afternoon, that this flu will be milder.

 Those of us who were alive in 1957 will most likely have already been exposed to a similar flu then and we may have the ability to fight this flu off.

That may account for the fact that elderly folks are not getting it as rapidly in Mexico.

So what exactly is my point?

I don't think we should panic.  Panic will not solve the problem.  It will only make matters worse. 

But as for now, let's use good common sense and look at the whole picture.  After all, that's what many of our elderly friends have already been doing for a long time.

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