Nuts about Nuts?

BBC NEWS | Health | Warning of nut allergy 'hysteria':

"Measures to protect children with nut allergies are becoming increasingly absurd and hysterical, say experts.
A peanut on the floor of a US school bus recently led to evacuation and decontamination for fear it might have affected the 10-year-old passengers."

Facts: there are 2,000 hospitalizations a year (out of 30,000,000 total) for all allergic reactions.  Just 150 people a year die from food allergies.

Professor Nicolas Christakis, a professor of medical sociology at Harvard Medical School, notes that the hysteria about nut contamination looks more like mass psychogenic illness. (See: Salem Witch Trials, etc.)

Are we Nuts about Nuts?  Yup.  

Interesting article about The Role of the Media and Media Hypes from Johns Hopkins.