Swine Flu, even at the worst projected mortality rate, is not going to kill to the extremes of the aforementioned movie. However, it seems that some people seem to think this is an end-of-life-as-we-know-it scenario. On Friday morning I was driving to work with the radio on (taking a well deserved break from singing practice) and heard someone being interviewed on the morning news criticising what was being done. Although I can't remember it verbatim, the person said something along the lines of "If one person has it on a plane, 100 people have it". This assertion gave me a right chuckle since that kind of infection rate would already mean many hundreds of cases in the UK. The "Catch It, Bin It, Kill It" leaflet that I found had been circulated at work on email. I particularly liked the advice about setting up a network of 'Flu-Friends': Not, as you might imagine a group of friends and relatives that you can infect, but instead, a group of minions that you can train to do your bidding should you fall ill (the leaflet suggests that you can ask them to run errands for shopping and medication for you but surely there's more fun to be had than this?)
This is a serious situation, but I really think some people need to get a bit of perspective. Firstly, you're extremely unlikely to catch it passing someone in the street - even sitting next to an infected person on a plane or train is no guarantee of contracting the illness. Furthermore, the UK is fortunate that we have a good stock of antiviral drugs available and with sensible precautions the virus can be contained so that they should not be needed.I'm not sure that 'Flu-Friends' classes as a precaution, sensible or otherwise.
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