Nostradamus and all that

Did Nostradamus prophecy swine flu? Zazzle certainly think so as they're selling T-Shirts with his "When Pigs Fly" prophecy printed on them. But in fact Nostradamus never said that and the phrase seems to have originated (rather worryingly) in swine flu capital Scotland some time after Nostradamus' death. But, hey, it's a great T-shirt. There were many doom-ridden predictions at the start of swine flu last year but before you start laughing at expectations of 40 deaths a day in Britain, it's worth remembering that millions may indeed have had swine flu as predicted in the UK - but a weaker than expected swine flu and vaccinations have reduced the number of deaths. And the usual winter flu deaths have been very low so it's good news all round.

• My apologies for the technical glitches that (yet again!) saw my blog vanish yesterday. Hopefully we're back up and running now. Good job I keep a back-up!