mild symptoms

How much of a problem is swine flu shaping up to be? Don't blame me if my head is spinning. Seems like I've been advised to be very worried -- like when the White House council of science advisers warned it could kill  30,000 to 90,000 Americans -- and then, maybe not so much. Symptoms are mild. Runs its course in three to five days. Wash your hands and you won't get it anyway. Like that.

This week the flu is filling emergency rooms in Spokane in Washington state, while around the West, parents and others seeking the vaccine line up, often futilely, waiting for a vaccine that is in extremely short supply.

The vaccine simply isn’t being produced in sufficient quantities due to production problems, reports the Associated Press. Only 13 million doses have been delivered, compared to the 12o million doses originally promised. Okay, I'm a little worried.

"As nervous Americans clamor for the vaccine, production is running several weeks behind schedule, and health officials blame the pressure on pharmaceutical companies to crank it out along with the ordinary flu vaccine, and a slow and antiquated process that relies on millions of chicken eggs.

In Spokane, where officials expected to have about 58,000 doses of swine flu vaccine by now, just 12,700 doses have been delivered.