Oh, wait...I might have something.

With CNN keeping the American viewing audience up-to-date on a viral outbreak at a Toronto nursing home, it almost makes me wish for another hurricane to start swirling in the Gulf just to draw Ted Turner's attention away (well, not really...a good tropical depression should suffice).

I suppose this should be of concern for any Yankees planning on visiting our fair city and popping into the local old-folks home to lick the banisters and toilet seats. They might be interested in knowing there are in the order of 40 or so outbreaks of various types in nursing homes throughout the GTA each year and this is not uncommon (not just here, but anywhere), given the tight clustering of the residents, staff and visitors combined with the relatively frail state of the primary occupants. Go to Google and type 'nursing home' and 'outbreak' (and filter out the word 'Toronto' if you want to avoid bombardment of the current hot news item) and you'll find a cornucoppia of news and information items about similar events right in everyone's own back yard.

Part of the argument is "what if I get sick and have to go to a hospital? I'm not going somewhere that will make me worse or kill me.". I'm not sure how often people think of this when visiting some equatorial tropical destination while drinking margs and getting in a base tan. I'm thinking one look in the waiting room at the local clinic might convince you to rely on the healing powers that many millenia of evolution has equipped us with instead.

According to Wunderground, the National Hurricane Center says the only threat is a non-tropical depression 550 miles northeast of the Leeward Islands that's not doing much except producing better rain. And the outbreak turned out to be Legionnaire's Disease so I suppose the glamour has gone from that one anyway. I guess it's back to homeland security updates and watching Larry King grow more wrinkles.