Mexicans need to be cooked to 160 degrees or til the juice runs clear. A little lime, and you are good to go.

I actually knew that you can't get swine flu frm eating pork...I mentioned the pork cooking times to my daughter because that's pretty much the only manner in which either of us would come into contact with a pig. Now, we spend our fair share of time with live horses, goats, cows and even the occasional chicken, but no one we know has any live pigs.

But, I'll try out that cilantro tip. Maybe a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

-K

Jsin, where did you get the information about the pork and cooking? I need it to prove a point with someone!

I have wrapping corn husks around you for days, Anne. When were you going to figure out why?

JSin - Actually, it's a bit more complicated than that! Swine flu existed before the current swine flu (it was previously called the Spanish Flu and was behind the huge pandemic in the early 1900s in Spain...one reason the WHO was so over reactive, though there are others). The current flu (from what I've read) seems to by a mix of swine, avian and human flu. It was incubated and created in humans (who have now given it to pigs...it's us dirty humans who are the source in this case!) Now, there seems to be quite a bit of evidence that this flu was incubated/created in humans in a town in Mexico where commercial/factory pig farming goes on (and the American company in question got in lots of trouble in the US for violations, which is why they moved to Mexico - the citizens complained for years about weird illnesses and nothing was done). It seems likely that unsanitary conditions caused by the factory farming gave rise to the creation of a new strain in humans (avian flu is similarly related with too much human contact with animal waste, there's some rumors that it was also caused by factory farming and not small farmers). At first with a flu we pick up from animals it can often only transmit between animal and human, it's when a flu mutates and can be transmitted human to human that health officials start freaking out. They're very simple viruses so they can mutate very, very quickly. In Canada, there are now very stringent testing and containment of animals diseases (from mad cow to avian and swine flu). In the US, where industry tends to trump public interest (and most of the market is internal so there isn't the threat of trade bans), these kinds of things often get brushed under the rug.

Ultimately this is a type-A influenza that, so far, hasn't even killed as many people as regular human flu. (Thousands of people die from regular flu every year - usually the old, young and immune suppressed). The reason why there's a freak out about a flu like this is because it's hard to tell what it is and is going to become - and we now travel so much that any disease spreads incredibly quickly. Planning for these kinds of health emergencies has always gone on by public health officials.

We can also get diseases from our pets and other animals. As you point out JSin, one reason why so many religions ban eating pork is because pigs are a lot like humans biologically so we can easily pick up diseases from them (it's also why pork is always meant to be well cooked).

Of course, it IS kinda weird that so much negative stuff is going on around Mexico these days - from the drug wars on the US border to shutting down all of Mexico City and killing the tourism trade via this flu panic. Soylent Mexicano anyone?

Extreme Sarcasm.

I dunno, some people are tragically born without a sense of humor. Others are so thoroughly conditioned to the political correcting of America that anytime they see a joke which requires a cultural reference to be made, they get a big ol' scratchy corncob up their ass.

But sometimes, it's just that they're just stupid.