andygates

Looks like we've got a pandemic flu again.  The Wikipedia page has the freshest summary location-by-location; the UK doesn't have it yet as the sniffly flight attendant tested clear.  FluWiki is where to go for the science; here are the WHO and American CDC pages..  The current numbers -  around 80 fatalities in around 1000 cases - makes it 8% deadly, a little below the 1918 Spanish flu but numbers are still coming in.  Like the Spanish, the casualties are mostly healthy prime-of-life types, so it's killing by cytokine storm, which means that you, my lovely thirtysomethings, are right in the firing line.  It may be prudent to GetPandemicReady. 

Flu's transmitted by droplets of infected water entering the body or mucous membranes.  A face-mask will prevent you spreading it; a respirator will prevent you getting it.  N95, N99 or EU FFP2 and FFP3 are the good stuff, but if you're in a sump of sneezing infected, don't forget to protect your eyes too. 

It's almost impossible to catch flu on a bicycle.  Buses are a different matter.  Just one more reason bikes win, even in the Captain Trips Lurgypocalypse.