Don't Be Blaming the Mexicans, Yo!

Apparently, a poor little 5 year old named Edgar ("yo soy el pequeño Edgar"*) from the pig farming town of La Gloria (talk about irony), Veracruz has been identified as patient zero. That is, he is the culprit of the widespread paranoia we feel today and of my burning desire for an astronaut suit.
From the nutty comments section of the New York Times, I like this scenario much better:

Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork packer and hog producer, operates a massive hog-raising operations in Perote, Mexico, in the state of Veracruz, where the outbreak originated. A Smithfield subsidiary, Granjas Carrol, raises 950,000 hogs per year.

Residents of Perote believed the outbreak had been caused by contamination from pig breeding farms located in the area. They believed that the farms, operated by Granjas Carroll, polluted the atmosphere and local water bodies, which in turn led to the disease outbreak. A municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms.

According to community residents the organic and fecal waste produced by Granjas Carrol isn’t adequately treated. Area residents complain of “fetid odors” in the air and water, swarms of flies hovering around waste lagoons and respiratory ailments.

Mexican health agency Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social has acknowledged that the original carrier for the flu could be the “clouds of flies” that multiply in the Smithfield subsidiary’s manure lagoons.

— Lawrence, Glendora

Of course, you always have your racist nut jobs that blame everything on Mexico (drugs, immigration, viruses, violence, etc) and want to build a wall at the border (by all means, be my guest). One nutcase is convinced this thing happened in Aruba first in March. Another thinks it's all a conspiracy by the pharma industry in order to raise the price of flu shots. I'm telling you... I think it's a conspiracy by gringos to besmirch the image of Mexico. Or maybe by Jews and Muslims to besmirch the image of pork. But I find Lawrence from Glendora's argument very compelling.

* This was the famous last line of a fabulously campy Mexican soap from the 80's called Cuna de Lobos (The Wolves' Cradle). El pequeño Edgar was the bad seed. But poor little Edgar from La Gloria. Imagine the entire world blaming you for a pandemic!

Blame the Gringos instead!