Hot on the heels of the news about Sanjay Gupta’s brush with swine flu…we learn that Gupta may well be in illustrious viral company.

Yesterday evening, Gupta appeared on Anderson Cooper 360 to discuss his experience with the porcine illness. And: during the course of the conversation, we learned that the Silver Bullet had been in Afghanistan with Gupta when the CNN medical correspondent fell ill—and that Cooper might have had the flu himself. As Gupta informed Cooper, on live air: “Frankly speaking—we can talk about this now, via satellite—there’s a good chance, based on everything that I’m hearing, that you also had H1N1 virus infection.”

And then, as if to validate the over-the-air diagnosis, the two TV personalities proceeded to engage in a fairly awkward moment of mutual coughing. Talk about phlegmatic journalism.

[via Mediaite]