SHOOT: TIME is asking whether it's a real crisis or a political ploy.
Ukraine is in the midst of what some might call swine-flu hysteria. The country is in virtual lockdown mode, with the government closing schools, universities and movie theaters and banning all public gatherings until the end of November. Pharmacies have run out of protective masks; those who missed the rush are improvising with scarves or homemade facsimiles. And rumors are running rampant, much as they did during Soviet times when the authorities tried to cover up disasters like the Chernobyl nuclear-plant meltdown. "We are worried that the swine flu has mutated and is killing scores of people," says Nina Sokolovska as she stands in line at a pharmacy.
To be sure, flu is spreading in Ukraine, with the government reporting more than 600,000 cases in the last week. "A vodka a day keeps swine flu away," one elderly woman told masked passersby on the street. |
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