The current evidence backs up Ryan Air boss Michael O'Leary's assertion in today's Times that swine 'flu is only a real threat to slum dwellers. Speaking to my brother yesterday, a professor of Mexican studies, he too pointed out that it was poor Mexicans who can't afford the doctor's fees who have died.
I don't want to diminish the global significance of a new, rapidly transmitted virus - especially one like 'flu that could mutate and get worse over time. But will the unfolding tragedy really be that there is another new form of disease, like diarrhoea, like pneumonia, that is entirely treatable and which is an inconvenience to the rich in the west, but a death sentence for the poor? If so, what are we going to do about it?
