Even though the name is rather contentious, it is definitely the main news topic worldwide.   The rate of new cases seems to be going down in Mexico according to the Health Ministry, but there have been more deaths in Mexico and the first one abroad and the disease has spread to more countries, including a suspected case in Finland.  In Mexico City most of my friends and family keep on staying home, and most have already paid a heavy-duty visit to the supermarket.  I certainly hope the situation stabilises before other countries besides Argentina and Cuba suspend flights to the country.

In the cultural reaction front, there is plenty of photoshopped images doing the rounds, and others taken from the scene.  There is now a second swine flu song, the first has been translated to English, and people keep on using humour as a way to cope, especially that now even restaurants in the city are closed (with losses of more than 70 million USD per day).