Michael Fumento

In the wake of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology with its "plausible scenario" of 30,000 - 90,000 swine flu deaths during the cold season comes a report from New York showing how truly mild the disease appears to be.

City officials estimate about 800,000 New Yorkers were infected in the spring. Through July, 47 of these died. That's a fatality rate of 0.006% - a tenth to a 40th the death rate of Americans due to seasonal flu, according to the CDC estimate range. Some pandemic.

Meanwhile, the family of a New York man who died of swine flu has announced it's planning to sue the city, claiming it failed to provide a safe workplace (he worked for the public school system) and failed to adequately control the H1N1 outbreak. They're asking for $40 million. Not incidentally, photos show the man is clearly obese and obesity has been found to be a special risk factor for swine flu.

Let's see, I had a really nasty cold last year. That should be good for at least a few million, don't you think?