I’m sorry the Swine Flu hysteria — our leaders love to say “oh my god look over there!” when they have, say, inherited wars spiraling out of control, or pressure to investigate torture by a previous administration that would take down some key members of their own party — had to dirty the beautiful minds of our readers. But it would be irresponsible not to inform you that St. Brigid’s Catholic School on St. Nicholas has been shuttered for the next week over a single case of the flu — the child has a sibling at St. Francis in Queens, which has two dozen sick kids.

The L train was shut down last night, as well, over a “sick” passenger. Is this level of alarm founded? Possibly. Remember when SARS and bird flu wiped out millions?