Bacon-flavored vodka — kills flu bacteria and helps you deal with the pork withdrawal symptoms.

As a live witness of the SARS debacle, I’d like to reminisce for a bit. We had 251 SARS cases in Canada, with 17% mortality rate (very high!). People stopped eating out and shopping at the malls, Chinatown was a “no-go zone” for a long time, tourism was hit, movies stopped filming in our “Hollywood of the North”. SARS had cost Ontario’s health-care system $945 million.

Economic impact, especially on the city of Toronto, was quite staggering and lasted for close to 3 years. Two years AFTER the last SARS case my friends in the U.S. kept asking me if we’re still taking precautions, staying in, if we had been hit etc. etc.

So if this swine flu takes hold, economic effects are unpredictable and the costs can be quite high.