The Right Conservative News Site | Right Side News  Switch to
desktop Register Login  The Geopolitics of Pandemics  May 5,
2009 by George Friedman  Word began to flow out of Mexico the
weekend before last of well over 150 deaths suspected to have
been caused by a new strain of influenza commonly referred to as
swine flu. Scientists who examined the flu announced that this
was a new strain of Influenza A (H1N1) derived partly from swine
flu, (hyperlinks for subscribers only, sign up for a Free Trial)
partly from human flu and partly from avian flu strains
(although there is some question as to whether this remains
true). The two bits of information released in succession
created a global panic.  This panic had three elements. The
first related to the global nature of this disease, given that
flus spread easily and modern transportation flows mean
containment is impossible. Second, there were concerns
(including our own) that this flu would have a high mortality
rate. And third, the panic centered on the mere f