"What happens if swine flu goes away?"

Well for one thing, Matt Drudge would be very, very sad.

""What happens if swine flu goes away?"

WASHINGTON, May 4 (Reuters) - With Mexico saying the worst may be over and the new H1N1 virus starting to look more like a seasonal flu strain in the United States and elsewhere, critics are going to start asking if public health officials overreacted to the outbreak.

Actually, I thought the reaction of public health officials was for the most part, fine. It was the media who overreacted, especially the likes of Drudge (who, in fairness, did link to this article) with 10 screaming headlines a day. I do think one public official who overreacted was Pa. Gov. Ed Rendell, the Matt Drudge of governors, who personally held a news conference to announce the first case in Pennshylvania, a fairly innocuous affair. The news could have been announced in a press release; Rendell's involvement ensured greater news coverage, which in my opinion ensured greater overreaction.

But this isn't exactly a governor who shuns the spotlight, is it?