A strong feeling of De Ja Vue overcame me this morning as I listened to the Today programme.

This mornings revelation that Swine flue is about as potent as seasonal flu and milder than some other specific flu bouts, reminded me of the personal attack upon myself by Evan Harris MP and responded to by Alan Johnson,  then Health Minister, during a Health debate called as Swine flu began to take hold.

I think I was described as being irresponsible for suggesting that it was nonsense to close down schools and far better that as a population we build immunity to this flu now, rather than wait for it to mutate later in the year and become something much more serious and difficult to treat by Winter.

 The general thrust of my comments was that the DoH, the government and the media were massively over reacting.

The press reporting has been at times totally irresponsible. The headline in Monday's paper announcing that a six year old healthy little girl had died from the virus must have put a chill in the heart of every parent, and yet, you would never read a headline which announced 'six year old healthy girl dies from flu' which they do, every year - it was the word 'swine' which gave the press something to splash on the front page.

Sensationalism at its worst, when achieved at the cost of a human life.

I was also struck by the protestations of those who claimed that the true picture of the swine flu outbreak can not be truly known, as many people are not seeking medical help and therefore we need some form of large scale testing to obtain a true picture of the scale of the outbreak. The inference being that on the contrary, this is not something simply as mild as seasonal flu, it’s much worse?!

Er, no, surely not? The reason why people aren't seeking medical help is because in the vast majority of cases, the symptoms are so mild that they don't need to,  possibly tipping the scales well over to the point of fact that swine flu is demonstrably milder that seasonal flu and in most cases as severe as a mild cold.

And that brings me back to my original point. Many will be building their own immunities and anti bodies via a natural process. The virus appears to have outwitted the authorities who would prefer to see us all in a dramatic sterile quarantine, puffing around in space suits and oxygen tanks wrapped up in masks and eating anti virals for breakfast.

I have always believed that the biggest danger to the survival of man is not war or terrorism or the threat of a nuclear bomb, but a virus which really will out wit mans capabilities, however; I think we are safe to assume that it won't be the Swine flu virus.