This morning Pennsylvania has been added to the number of states that have confirmed cases of H1N1 – better known as swine flu.

Ready to panic yet? Neither am I.

Look, I’m in the news business. But even I have to step back and take a breath and wonder if all this coverage is not just a tad over the top and adding to the concerns about just how dangerous this situation is.

Across the region, there are a handful of swine flu cases confirmed in both New Jersey and Delaware. There are now two schools – one in Jersey, one in Delaware – that have been shut down as a precaution against the spread of the virus. I’ll leave that to someone else whether or not that was the correct thing to do.

There are now 10 confirmed cases of swine flu among students at the University of Delaware. They’ve brought in the Centers for Disease Control to monitor the situation there.

Nationwide, the case count now stands at 245. But there has still only been one confirmed fatality in the U.S., and that case involved a baby in Texas that was brought into the country from Mexico. Even south of the border in Mexico, the situation seems to be stabilizing.

There is something about the Pennsylvania case that struck me. The victim is a 31-year-old landscaper who recently arrived from Mexico. But he has already recovered. That’s the same situation that played out with a toddler in Philadelphia that was one of the early “probable” cases of swine flu.

I will repeat what we tried to stress on our editorial page in the print edition today. There is no need to panic. A good dose of common sense may be just what the doctor ordered.

Routine winter flu outbreaks kill more than 30,000 people in the U.S.
every year. So far swine flu has killed exactly one person – a baby that was actually sickened in Mexico.