Top unwarranted panics

The Apocalypse appears to be canceled. Sure, swine flu is nasty business, but health care officials seem to be admitting that we’re not all going to fall victim to some sort of Stephen King-style plague sure to wipe civilization from the face of the Earth.

Of course, no one should be surprised that Americans got a little carried away with this latest doomsday scenario. We actually seem to like this sort of thing. If it’s not fear of the turn of the century or a frenzy over a fictional alien invasion, it’s a trumped-up crisis over some kind of disease or food poisoning.

As swine-mania begins to fade, Time takes a look back at some other great and largely unwarranted panics. Here’s the list:

Salmonella

War of the Worlds

Mad Cow Disease

Tylenol Poisonings

Red Dye No. 2

DDT

Y2K

SARS

Lead Toys

To read more about these deadly perils that we somehow managed to survive, visit Time.

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