Lately I feel as though every time I pick up the paper, Chicken Little is blaring out from the headlines with these constant “the sky is falling” warnings. It’s not that I don’t take seriously all the talk of swine flu. And I have the deepest sympathy for anyone who lost a loved one to the illness earlier this year. It’s just that I wonder sometimes if we’re being led toward fear rather than commonsense. I’ve never heard so much talk about hand washing before. Hasn’t it always been a good idea to wash your hands, cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze and shake hands with the hand you don’t use for this prior purpose? These are lessons we’re supposed to have taught our children along with brushing after every meal. At the same time, I have a college student and an insulin-dependent teenager. I teach at a local university. My husband teaches at a local high school. I suppose you could say we’re all likely candidates for this poorly named illness. But I’m distrustful of vaccines that haven’t had time to be fully tested because I worry more about the side effects than the disease. And I’m skeptical whenever the drumbeat sounds continuously about something “they” say I now suddenly have to do.  So I’ll continue to monitor Chicken Little’s messages, but I’m going to try not to let them make me grab the family and go into hiding. What do you think of the news about swine flu? Will you have your child vaccinated?