It's all over the news, radio, and Internet. It is invading nearly every topic of conversation and is causing widespread fear. I'm sure you know what I am talking about - swine flu - or as the government would like us to now call it because the pork companies are losing money - H1N1 virus.
I don't usually let stuff like this get to me. I will joke about it of course, but usually don't take it too seriously since the media likes to hype everything up so much. However, I am genuinely concerned right now for the health and safety of myself and my family. My husband has Type I diabetes so he is more susceptible to illness and additionally has a harder time fighting it off when infected in addition to having to worry about his blood sugar levels when not being able to eat or losing fluids from illness. Then there is my 3 year old son who also may be susceptible to illness due to his age and his proximity to other children at school. His school has been taking extra precautions at this time (we even got a long letter about it yesterday) so I feel like he is relatively safe, but I guess you never know. And other schools and even major school districts now are taking precautions and shutting down their schools. It's kind of a crazy time!
Of course my fears were multiplied this morning when I heard on the radio about this doctor who is claiming that the swine flu outbreak is actually much worse than what is being reported due to the delay in testing and verification from the CDC and that there are actually 10-25 times MORE cases of this than what are being reported. He also explains the seriousness of it and how people are in hospitals now fighting it with the help of drugs and respirators, but that if it continues to spread, we may be out of the needed number of supplies before being able to help everyone that may become infected.
I hate this - it makes me not sleep well at night in fear that I or one of my family members will contract this stupid illness. I hate the fact that I feel the need to run out and stock up my fridge and pantry in case we need to stay in the house for awhile and fill my gas tank in case we need to drive off somewhere (not sure where we would go to avoid this one though). I hate that it makes me question my everyday activities - like going to the local restaurant we eat at every Friday night or picking up a few things at Target or Walmart. I hate that it makes me super hyper about washing my hands or at least using antibacterial lotion stuff to the point that my hands are getting dry. I hate this.
We are the United States - a superpower - why can we not fight this disease? If we can make a vaccine to prevent the regular flu, why can we not come up with both a vaccine to prevent as well as medicine to help if you do become infected? We need to get moving because having to shut down the US for a few days to a week would have an even more devastating impact on our economy due to the lack of productivity for that time period and would cause sheer panic. That is not the world I want to live in nor raise my son in, and I truly hope that we can figure this out sooner than later.
I don't want to be afraid any longer....
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