Dave, Dev and the flu

The on-again, off-again slowdown in this space continues till further notice. Meantime, two nuggets I ran across yesterday.

* From Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States by (surprise) Dave Barry, these lines in a section titled "Highlights of the Ford Administration".

Another major Ford highlight was when he alerted the nation that there was going to be an epidemic of "swine flu" and that everybody should get a shot. As it turned out, there was less of a risk from the disease than from the shots, but fortunately only a few high-level administration officials were dumb enough to get them.

Dave's tongue-in-cheek apart, does anyone know how true this is, i.e. was there a swine flue scare in the mid-1970s?

* Yesterday's Hindustan Times Cafe (August 16) had a cover story on Dev Anand, described on the cover as "India's most liberal 85-year-old". Note the word "liberal".

On page 12 is the interview with Dev Anand, and here's his first answer, on the subject "Article 377 and gay marriages":

You can do anything in private but you don't flaunt it in public. Homosexuality is unacceptable to any country or community. It doesn't have the approval of any school or college. And I don't think any parent would happily give his or her consent to a same sex marriage for their child. So, why encourage it?