centers for disease control

Minnesota’s one confirmed case of the new flu is sending investigators looking in “concentric circles” for other people who may have the infection, according to state Health Commissioner Dr. Sanne Magnan.

The story has itself gone viral: A new Google tool tracks the spread of actual influenza by monitoring Web searches for terms like “flu.” By aggregating such virtual searches, Google can also anticipate flu outbreaks in the real world by a week to 10 days. Even if Google were to amend its motto to “First, do no evil,” can we trust national health policy to the same search engine trend-spotting tool that puts a wrinkled comedian and a airbrushed model at an equal level of “Hotness”?