How could a very specific and unlikely killer virus like the swine flu – believed to have afflicted almost 13,000 people worldwide within two months compared to more than 15 million deaths every year from all infectious diseases – have sparked a global panic? Two arguments are brought to light, namely the so called fear factor and the news factor. Contrary to the SARS epidemic in China, the Mexican government didn’t try to withhold information from the world public and instead acted according to the principle of risk aversion: Without knowing the effects of the measures taken to prevent transmissions, the Mexican health management allowed the WHO and national governments to consider further steps – entailing panic pyramid (over-)reactions.