Taking Precautions

I read in the news today that there is concern at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that there isn't enough swine flu vaccine available to help stave off concerns of a potential viral outbreak later this year. What this means for the average among us is that those of us who don't fall in the 'at-risk' category will likely not be able to get vaccinated for a much longer time than was originally anticipated. Now there are two schools of thought on this issue. There are those that believe that we should take precautions and do more to avoid getting ourselves and others ill and there are those who believe that the reports of potential outbreaks are grossly overstated and that we should just live our lives without any undue additional burdens such as helping to prevent the spread of the disease.

One thing is certain, swine flu will hit our country and I suppose the only question that remains is how badly it will hit. I recently took a flu shot (which helps prevent the flu flu and not swine flu) as a precaution and while in line a lot of the surrounding conversations (understandably) were on the topic of swine flu and catching something. Now thankfully I have managed to avoid falling sick to the flu in the past few years due to the fact that I have tried to limit my exposure to sick people and thankfully many of those who are in my office also have the common sense and decency to stay at home if they feel they are ill. That includes if they are taking care of ill family members.

To me that's a very safe precaution. The reason being that although by taking care of someone who is sick you may not get sick yourself but you could be a carrier for the disease. Some of us have a more naturally occurring immunity to some illnesses when compared to others which means that you can still carry the disease without getting others ill but that also means that you can pass the disease on to others. The reason I bring this up is because there were some individuals in my office who were out on sick leave to take care of their children only to find out that their kids were infected with swine flu. After being out of the office for nearly a week these individuals returned stating that they and their kids were fine (which is good news I'm sure) but now they are coughing up a storm and spreading fear (as well as any germs they are carrying) among their co-workers. To me, that's not a good thing to do and shows that they really don't feel the need to take precautions.

Perhaps we're all getting a little paranoid with fears about catching swine flu but I don't think many peoples concerns are that far off the mark. Especially when you see examples of folks treating the sickness a little too nonchalantly and behaving as if it's nothing more bothersome than the common cold. To you it may have only been a cold but for others it could turn into something much deadlier. I think that given how paranoid and worried many people are becoming, the responsible thing is to avoid spreading the disease by staying away from crowds or at least avoiding coughing all over the people you work with. I truly hope that these fears over the disease truly are nothing more than rampant paranoia but I certainly don't need to risk finding out that it's not by having co-workers giving me their germs.