Thank you again for your comment. Yes, I am very aware about the debate surrounding the origin of H1N1, and concede that there has been little to no direct conclusion by any officials of the source, host, or reason why H1N1 might of occured in any region. I think however since the source of the majority of cases did occur in some parts of Mexico and that the majority of the early cases also were in Mexico, that even if patient zero was not from Mexico or Mexican, it would be worth taking some claim that the strain likely did start in Mexico and did spread in Mexico in order to have a reaction to the issue which is exactly what happened, and while unsubstantiated, still concede that there is a strong chance that the issue was one that started or had strong links to parts of Mexico. In legal terms it could be concluded by many who study epidemics that the source was likely Mexico beyond a reasonable doubt, and for this reason, it wouldnt be unlogical to start in Mexico to find the source of the virus if one was looking for it. I think the denial of having the flu start in Mexico has become not a debate between academic collegues who are trying to solve the issue, but one of pushing responsibility away from certain political forces in order to remove the obligation to act to resolve the issue in the long term. In my opinion it is a futile debate as you likely will never prove it completely, and it takes away from responding to the crisis. You will never have a 100% conclusion on where H1N1, SARS or other origins of epidemics might have started, and flu mutations occur in many countries every few months, but I think Mexico has handled H1N1 in a good fashion and should claim a victory, but also should consider that the strain could have been created and started in Mexico so the source could be found with less administrative restrictions and political debating. So my claim of having H1N1 originating in Mexico is one I came to as a conclusion “beyond a reasonable doubt”, but I concede that there are doubts to this conclusion…I just believe to constructively deal with the source it is best to follow some conclusions and leave the debate open for added information in the future. I know many laypeople and medical experts would conclude the same in a simple test of reasonableness in their conclusions, and I do respect your point of view and thank you for your comments. Gracias Dr. Raul!

My criticisms aside, this is a really good blog post. Attacks on Mexico are really unwarranted. As a Mexican myself (who lives abroad) I have a really hard time dealing with the kind of racism and anti-Mexican sentiments that have been so prevalent in many publications (particularly in the US).