Townies Alarmed By Spread of H1N1

At least those who comment on the Ithaca Journal site.

"Suzr66" wants Cornell students to isolate themselves in order to keep the flu from spreading to Townies:

I think they should consider cancelling classes until they have this under control and ask the students to stay on the campuses and inside the buildings they live in until they know where this is all coming from, there has to be be a source whether it be ball games or classes or even the parties they may be having maybe they shouldn't be adding to it by crowding all together at this point the smaller the groups the better until this is over tey not infect everyone who lives here...

And "dc0804" objects to a community flu forum at the Ithaca High School cafeteria because the representatives from Cornell may be carrying the virus with them:

Now this is about the dumbest thing i have read thus far you want to bring people down from cornell who have been incontact with the students into our local high school where our children eat and hold a meeting for an hr and half Why dont you have the meeting at cornell why spread in to our local schools?? I hope this is reconsidered

Although the two events are obviously on quite different scales, is anyone else reminded of what happened in many parts of Europe during the black plague? Confused about how the disease operated, many people blamed minority groups, such as Jews or traveling merchants, and took out their frustrations on these people.