Swineflu Pandemic

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am a fairly level-headed person, not inclined to panic. But I have to say that I am increasingly questionning what the hell is going on with the swineflu 'pandemic'.

This issue hadn't caused me much concern over the ordinary until my eldest woke me the other night with a sore throat and a temperature and in a panic worrying "has anyone who has gotten swineflu lived?"!!! Turns out is wasn't swineflu and even if it was we had the paracetemol, the sponging down and the plenty liquids remedy plus lots of reassurance about how almost every one of the hundreds of thousands who had swineflu did indeed live! (Then why is there all this talk about swineflu deaths on the radio she wanted to know...)

So, with two of mine heading back to school in the next few days I have been listening and looking for the advice which amounts to: schools will open as normal with special precautions being taken. This amounts to children being asked to sneeze into tissues, then dispose of them and wash their hands in warm, soapy water. Now I wonder how feasible this is for a start.

Secondly, we have been told that children are amongst the most vulnerable of groups due to their lack of immunity which seemingly builds up over the course of your life. Thirdly, we hear that the swineflu vaccine has not been tested on children (how could it have been validly tested on anyone in such a short time I'd like to know?) And finally we are being told that this is no worse than ordinary flu. And I'll give you that - except that 1 in three of us are expected to get it.

And I am asking myself if I should really be sending my children into what is a veritable smelting pot of all known illnesses, where we already acknowledge that once they go to school, they 'pick up everything'.

I am telling myself that if I were the HSE population health experts I would be saying the same things as they are now: continue as normal; no need to panic. But then if I were a HSE population expert I would have a slightly different imperative than I have as a concerned mother. That probably being the greater good. But as a mother, my concern is very narrow: for my children, individually. And I have to say that I am not convinced that what is for 'the greater good' is actually the best thing for my children.

In truth I will probably send them to school - but at the first sign of or report of a sniffle....well, my resolve might start to wane pretty rapidly. I will be interested to see how the 'advice to schools' is implemented. Meanwhile I will be packing tissues into their schoolbags in the (vain I suspect) hope that they will use them. We shall see how this all pans out. Something tells me that the merdre (as the French say) is about to hit the fan on this one as soon as the schools re-open.