H1N1

So Norwell has a couple of diagnosed cases of H1N1, a student and a teacher.  The White House (in the middle of a health care debate) makes a prediction that the nation's hospitals will be filled to the brim with flu cases this flu season:

According to what the advisory report describes as a "plausible scenario," 30 percent to 50 percent of the country's population will be infected in the fall and winter. As many as 300,000 patients may be treated in hospital intensive care units, filling 50 percent to 100 percent of the available beds, and 30,000 to 90,000 people may die, the report said.

As the article says, predicting the flu season is even harder than predicting the weather, so perhaps we should take the White House prediction with a grain of salt.  This is the same White House, after all, that doesn't want to let a serious crisis go to waste.  The climate is in crisis, the auto industry is in crisis, the economy is in crisis, the health care industry is in crisis... the nations hospitals will be overflowing, more than 100% full this year... yeah yeah... cry wolf and all that.