Space weather and pandemic warnings?

Medical science is not accustomed to turning to the skies for warnings of pandemics although this is precisely what our distant ancestors throughout history were prone to do. The Sun clearly plays an important role in all aspects of our lives. For instance, there have been many claims that the occurrence of pandemic influenza and other viral outbreaks is correlated with the well-known 11-year sunspot cycle1–3 although the precise mechanism for such a causative connection had remained unclear. Now, with space exploration and continuous monitoring of ‘space weather’, it is evident that the Earth’s magnetosphere, and the interplanetary magnetic field in its vicinity, are modulated by the solar wind that in turn controls the flow of charged particles onto the Earth.