Tuesday, June 16, 2009

It's been way too long - pandemic musings

Between the pandemic preparation (part of my job), blogging for Blisstree.com and my other freelance work, this blog has taken a big hit.

What's really interesting though, is that I keep getting a consistent number of hits every day as people find my information through search engines, mainly Google.

The pandemic thing is the big thing in my life right now. People are either freaking out over the sky falling in or they're not believing a word that's said. I kind of wish people would fall into the middle somehow.

There's no need to freak. A level 6 pandemic just means that the virus has spread everywhere. It doesn't indicate how severe the virus is or how dangerous it is. In fact, it doesn't tell us much, but it's a formality at this point.

Here in Canada, the upgrade to level 6 made no difference in our preparations at all. The government was already operating at it's highest level for preparation.

Let's face a few facts. The seasonal flu affects millions all over the world - and people die. More people have died of seasonal flu complications than the H1N1 virus - so far. But, getting sick is a fact of life. Of course, we can do steps to minimize this, but it does still happen.

An acquaintance of mine told me that her grandmother's seniors residence closed to visitor when the World Health Organization declared level 6 pandemic. That's ridiculous. Five minutes before they declared it, there was nothing different than five minutes after. As I said, either people are panicking or they're living in dreamland. Neither is a good move.

Be careful, be vigilant about washing your hands, and I suggest going on with your life as you were before. I know I am.

1 comment:

Old Wife said...

Good to see a new post ;-)

My only concern with this pandemic is the newness of the virus and, therefore, the increased risk for otherwise healthy, young people to become seriously ill. There have been teenagers hospitalized with this influenza in our region and that's not normal for the usual flu breakouts here. I'm not panicking (far from it), but I will be far more careful than I usually am when flu season hits here again this fall.