Swine flu (Time to Epidemic?)

Google Maps Mania: H1N1 Swine Flu My Map

This site shows a Google Map that documents the spread of swine flu in Mexico. People add in locations of outbreaks as they find out. It'll be really interesting to see where it spreads and how it spreads. Edges will probably be due to casual contact initially but then closer relationships such as within families. Freaky. Hopefully we never reach an epidemic/pandemic...

This article has social network, information cascade, and epidemic all in one. It talks about how twitter is often being used to spread fear and misinformation about the swine flu. It also talks about how bad news travels faster than good news (even though the nodes and edges are the same).

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/27/swine.flu.twitter/index.html

Here's a public service announcement from the last swine flu outbreak: Swine Flu Shot
The video demonstrates how each person or node creates an edge to another person with contact. (Not to mention coughing and sneezing.)The video seems exaggerated, but it definitely explains how something that started in another country is now just one state over. The video shows three distinct waves of contagion. First, the family man infects his daughter. Then, the daughter gives the virus to her teacher. The teacher then makes an edge to her husband. And, that's just one of the paths. If prevention methods are not taken seriously, eventually the graph of infected nodes will become a pandemic and not just a level four alert.