Airline CEO should leave flu advice to the doctors

Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary

doesn't just run Europe's No.1 discount airline. He apparently fancies himself a specialist in infectious diseases.

Speaking at a press conference today, O'Leary dismissed warnings from health officials that the swine flu epidemic which killed about 150 people in Mexico and claimed its first victim in the U.S. could turn into a global pandemic. The Times of London reports that the airline executive believes that the disease was only a threat to Asians and Mexicans living in slums.

"It is a tragedy only for people living . . . in slums in Asia or Mexico," the paper quotes O'Leary as saying. "But will the honeymoon couple from Edinburgh die? No. A couple of Strepsils will do the job."