Japan Over Action - Set Up for Failure?

Talking about over-reaction!? The New York Times is reporting how Swine Flu is impacting Japan and apparently causing tremendous concern...

"Like many other countries, Japan has reported mild flu cases and no deaths. Still, it is in crisis mode: more than 4,800 schools have been closed in the region, medical services are swamped, and testing laboratories are working around the clock."
This quote should illustrate the difference between destruction and effect. No deaths but still considerable impact on the systems of infrastructure. Consider the Ripple Effect of the situation as routine calls for service and routine visits to hospitals continue to come in. I'm suprised at this situation and wondering what was learned from SARS.

"The outbreak has come as a particular shock for hygiene-obsessed Japan, where hand-washing is religiously taught in schools, children play in sanitized sandboxes, and everything from underwear to ballpoint pens comes with supposed antibacterial properties." Has hygiene gone too far? An earlier posting (see Emerging Diseases and the Hygiene Hypothesis October, 2007) discusses the impact of removing stimuli from a immune system. Cleaner is not always better.