The swine flu doesn’t scare me!
Getting scared would be useless. Washing my hands often, on the other hand, is useful.
There was a day when carrying a little bottle of hand sanitizer in one’s purse was a cause for good-natured ridicule. That day is over, baby, and we now know that keeping one’s hands as germ-free as possible is the best thing you can do to avoid getting sick. You don’t have to go all Howie Mandel about it and get freaked out over shaking someone’s hand. Just don’t rub your eye until you’ve had a chance to wash your paws.
There’s also a perception that only the very young and very old are vulnerable in the case of a pandemic and that’s also not necessarily so. Remember SARS? Otherwise healthy adults were felled by that one and some experts think a second wave of swine flu, after this first wave peters out, will be even stronger and more of a threat to everyone, regardless of their age or the current state of their health. So let’s all go on a virus hunt together, shall we, by washing our hands regularly and being vigilant about it. Cough into your sleeve. I don’t care what the environmentalists say, but using a tissue and throwing it away is better – I think – than tucking a squishy, germ laden handkerchief back into your pocket. (BLECH!) There’s no need to panic or even worry but just be smart about it.