Residents wear surgical masks as they exit the subway in Mexico City on Monday, April 27, 2009. (AP)

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1976, Fort Dix, New Jersey. An outbreak of swine flu among military recruits. Washington feared a pandemic. Stepped in big. Immunized 40 million Americans. But the flu just disappeared.

2009, in Mexico, New Zealand, New York, Kansas, Texas, the UK, and now Israel, Spain, and more — swine flu is making big headlines again. Spreading. Killing in Mexico. Moving up the WHO pandemic scale, now to Phase 4 of 6.

Will it roar? Or vanish? And could a flu born in warm Mexico spread right through the summer?

This hour, On Point: The science and threat of the swine flu outbreak, 2009.

You can join the conversation. Are you double-washing your hands yet? Have you been traveling — maybe catching, or worried that you’ve caught this new virus? And what questions do you still have, after all the reporting, the calls of alarm and for calm? Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Mexico City is Victor Hugo Michel, special affairs reporter for Milenio, one of the biggest national dailies in Mexico.

From San Antonio, we’re joined by Don Finley, medical reporter San Antonio Express-News. He’s covering the swine flu investigation in Guadalupe County.

Joining us from Atlanta is Dr. Joe Bresee, M.D., chief of epidemiology and prevention in the Influenza Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  

From Washington we’re joined by Dr. Michael Greger, M.D., director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States. An expert on animal-to-human diseases, he’s author of “Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching.”

And from New York we’re joined by Delthia Ricks, health reporter for Newsday and author of “100 Questions & Answers About Influenza.”

More links:

The CDC website offers information on the swine flu, including questions and answers on symptoms, treatment, and prevention.

In this CDC video, Dr. Bresee talks about the swine flu, its symptoms, transmission, and treatment:

Soldiers patrol as federal police vehicles are inspected at a military check point on the outskirts of Tijuana, Mexico, on Jan. 22, 2009. Mexico's drug war has brought a surge in violence, with more than 5,300 gang killings reported in 2008. (AP)

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Police officers beheaded, civilians bombed. No, not in Afghanistan, but Mexico — where last year more than 5,000 people were killed in drug cartel violence.

Now that violence is spilling over the border like never before — to Tuscon and Atlanta. Phoenix is the new capital of kidnappings for ransom.

Mexican President Calderon’s U.S.-backed crackdown has created a brutal backlash from warring cartel factions. And the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff worry that a “failed state” is in the making.

This hour, On Point: Mexico’s drug war, and its consequences, on both sides of the border.

You can join the conversation. Can you imagine drug cartel kidnappings in major U.S. cities? How should President Obama respond to Mexico’s drug war? Is it time for a new approach?

-Jane Clayson, guest host

Tom Ashbrook is on vacation this week.

Guests:

Joining is from Phoenix, Arizona, is J.J. Hensley, staff reporter at The Arizona Republic. He’s been covering the spike in drug-related kidnappings for ransom hitting Phoenix.

With us in our studio is Alfredo Corchado, Mexico bureau chief for the Dallas Morning News and currently a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.

From Washington, we’re joined by Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center.

And from Tuscon, Arizona, we’re joined by Anthony Coulson, assistant special agent in charge at the Drug Enforcement Administration in Tucson.