... but can I still eat bacon???

The City of Chelsea has issued a public health announcement in regard to the Swine Flu cases in Massachusetts. The following message was issues by our Reverse 911 system (kudos to Somerville for innovating this handy outreach tool!) The main take away points are 1) Do not panic and 2) Wash your hands. For my commentary and more resources please continue after the italics:

First, there is no reason to panic.

 

There are several confirmed cases of Swine Flu in and around Chelsea .

 

For now, you are advised to use proper hygiene, like washing your hands often with soap and water or with a hand sanitizer and sneezing into a disposable tissue or into your sleeve instead of into your bare hands.  If you are experiencing flu-like symptoms, you should consider limiting your contact with others and call your health provider.

 

We will continue to follow State and Federal guidelines, will continue to monitor the local situation and will continue to update you if more action is recommended or required.

Being the analytical guy I am I am also supplying you with additional reading, information is power, and the more you know the better.

This link supplies you with a fully interactive map of the WORLD. If you are focusing on Massachusetts, and Suffolk County/Chelsea in particular please keep in mind that the official numbers are mostly at the county level, so no there is not a massive outbreak over the water outside of Logan Airport! That number is for all of Suffolk Country. The same goes for Middlesex County, that random corn field in Concord that bubble is over most likely has no cases of Swine Flu, Middlesex County is a very large geographic county (by New England standards.) For more information click on the bubble when you zoom in and follow the link they list, it will bring you to the Massachusetts Health Department website. 

To answer the question I posed in the headline, pork products ARE not affected by the outbreak. Most doctors would recommend we limit our bacon intake, but not because of Swine Flu.

Slate.com has the most expansive list of articles on Swine Flu, well the most expansive READABLE list...

Finally for all of us who Twitter, we need to be careful not to spread hysteria , and lets keep things in context.

Fashion Police State

The sign says Soldier Design, the camera is obviously a security camera...

It feels very 1984