It is back.

Missmc officially has swine flu (again?  well- this is certainly unmistakably IT!) and will write again as soon as some energy and wit are restored.  Tamiflu has helped, but, this is a wretched wretched flu.  I recommend avoiding it at all costs. 

The Dulwich Swine

Child number two has flu-like symptoms.  So does Missmc.  We've been to all the local pharmacies and thermometers are sold out.  Ours broke over the weekend, but, a hand to the forehead and a bit of sweating tells all.  I've an amazing chesty cough, a good wheeze, a sore throat, a headache, and some sweats.  I am tired but not terribly exhausted and have experienced much much worse.  Child number two is not a good patient.  He is crying, mean and horrid.  And as he is five, he does not have an off button except the one that has him down on the floor flailing about something or other.  That is not his usual demeanor - he is a generally cheerful little soul.  

A call to the local doctor's office had me on hold for one-half hour.  I hung up, and, called NHS Direct.  NHS Direct said to hang up unless you are dreadfully ill.  So, I hung up.  We will remain uncounted and unseen unless things get worse.  And, I guess life will be a bit boring.  I think the tennis is cancelled and all other socials.  Bah.

I started last week with this and felt it was likely not the swine thing.  But, as it might be, we will be responsible citizens and lay low.  We have been exposed to three swine families in the past two weeks.  So, it seems very likely...

The Swine Thing...

The swine thing is having a moment again here in Dulwich.  Three different playmates of my children have families sitting about infected to varying degrees with the flu.  A mum with the flu phoned me last evening and asked if we could meet up as she had some money to pass on for the teacher's end-of-year present.  No no and no!  Stay home.  Or send an envelope through my front door that I can quarantine for a few days.  Laugh if you must, but, being asthmatic, I think my aversion is justified.

Behind the scenes, the Flu thing is being approached with a bit more proactive precaution by various businesses in London.  Like - how will the firm cope if a large number of workers are telecommuting?  The BBC reports that BT feels confident it can handle any surge in home broadband demand.  BT customers might argue with that point-of-view.  At another global company, the employees have been issued masks and have gone through several strategy meetings with key staff.

Missmc is the only person left in the world besides large corporations worried about the flu.  Missmc has an immune system that goes a bit mental with any germ or allergen that comes by.  It is overactive and produces great vials of mucous and fights things to the extent that the battle floods the body with so many weapons that the weapons of slime bring down the body.  An ordinary cold can slide into pneumonia at the slightest tease.  At the moment, I am sitting here with a giant migraine as so much snot is sitting in my right cheekbone.  Personally, I've lived with this all my life so it does not seem out of the ordinary.  Asthma is an autoimmune disease.  It means the body does not understand when its defenses are self-destructive.  So - my perspective on the flu thing is going to be very different to the shrug of the shoulders most people are adopting...

So.  Mostly-I-am-trying-not-to-worry, but, every now and then, I think....oh dear....

Howard is now leaving and this will be the last post written here on Swine Flu

Missmarketcrash has been swept away from her usual favorite control-freak topics of things-out of-her-control such as economics, the stock market and the weather.  I am now trying to drop the flu topic and get back on course.  Before I do, here are some great geeky links worth a read.  My obsessive readings have led me to the humble opinion that there is not enough data yet to have an informed opinion but the media hype is worthwhile if it can get us to use common sense and engage in civilized behavior.  Covering one's mouth with a tissue can go a long way and washing hands after any bodily function that emits things ought to be a matter of course, but, these measures shouldn't be taken into our psyche to a Howard Hughes level.

I happened to be out last evening and a quick flu conversation took place.  The brave and esteemed BBC war reporter/editor husband of a friend dismissed the topic as bad media hype with a roll of his eyes and a quick word about regular flu deaths and other more prevalent infectious diseases.  As you would, if you were a war reporter who faces doom on a regular basis.  "It could happen to me" is not in his makeup.  His wife was much the same.  I quivered on the edge of my seat, with the facts I'd read over the past couple of days on the tip of my tongue.  But, I sat silent as he is correct in the sense that there is no sense getting worked up about the situation.  However, I do think it is worth taking an analytical rather than an emotional perspective.  The analytical starting point?  It is a new creature.  We've not had a novel human-to-human viral flu-like form like this in many years according to the scientists. So, it is worth getting geeky to clarify points of that idea and learn more.  What the scientists can't do is tell you the future.  But more and more data will give more and more of a picture.

So, for the analytically minded, glances at WHO and the CDC can clarify any media warps you might experience as these are the primary scientific sources the media spins their stories from. Beyond that, a database list of Swine sequences from the National Center for Biotechnology Information is a must read for science geeks.  The various other pages on the site can get you up to date in a breeze.

Or, if that is all too terribly geeky, one could visit the Fluwiki and read it with a critical eye. It does tend toward the hysterical side and may contain incorrect information.  It is probably better to stick to the BBC if you are after layman's science than Fluwiki, but, it does have some interesting valid threads.  Finally, as I do like to end these posts on a humourous note, here is a link to a UK public health ad campaign called "Catch it, Bin it, Kill it" .  When the sneezing man rolls his eyes in a knowing way, I can't help but laugh.

An informative read

There was is a study published by the CDC in 2005  entitled "Serologic Evidence of Human and Swine Influenza in Mayan Persons". It is an informative read and the references cited also look interesting.

Howard Hughes meets Henry David Thoreau

The little microcosm that is my back garden is thriving.  This morning, a new birds nest was under construction in the ivy wall.  Across the way, in a large hedge, the faint peeps of baby birds twittered as the mother flicked in and out of the foliage with worms.  The lacy heads of purple carrots have emerged.  Wild bluebells have spread to spectacular effect.  A giant allium is just beginning its tall catwalk in partial bloom.  New baby grass beckons.

Pandemics and economics have left this little patch of paradise untouched.  There is nothing more delightful than eating breakfast whilst watching a starling build its nest.  If you could cross Howard Hughes with Henry David Thoreau, that is where I am at this morning.  Panic and denial have both seized the wheel.  Isn't there another choice of driver available?

The Black Swine

Moby Dick has arrived.  Hollywoodsters who have been churning out financial doom and gloom screenplays have been handed a new sub-plot twist.  Swine Flu.  The plot has been returned to that old favorite, man vs nature.  

Missmarketcrash does not mean to make light of the alarming new news.  And she does not intend to get wrapped up in it.  Back in the 90's a mutual friend who was going through a painful divorce had to watch his ex-wife catapult to Hollywood stardom via the popularity of the movie, Safe.  Forever in my mind, when pandemics, or viral fears or general paranoia about invisible things hit, all I can see is Julianne Moore.  And her ex-husband in the background.  The twisted web of associations have brought her face to the front of my mind this morning.  Broken hearts, success, fear, ambition, viruses.

So, I guess my new screenplay would feature Miss Moore.  Let's twist her into the current economic crisis and have her married to a major bank CEO.  Perhaps she is an ambitious stay-at-home bank wife in charge of a charity.  And she secretly loathes him and hates the second position of importance seat she has in the household.  She goes off to do some pr for said charity and comes home full of new self-worth and enthusiasm. Mr. Bank CEO who is under a huge strain and cannot get out of his own headspace is woefully selfish and neglecting his wife as he combats a world economic crisis.  She ends up seeking solace in the arms of a charity intern, young and handsome and full of save-the-world generosity and attentiveness to the wife. But then...a viral pandemic begins to surface.  For some reason, it is only affecting wives of bankers.  The bankers themselves are spared.  The news breaks, and, eventually the virus origins are traced to the small circle of charity workers.   

The charity was devoted to the protection of an almost extinct variety of black swan.   The intern had caught the disease by trying to resuscitate a dying black swan. The swan had a new mutated viral strain caused by swimming in a pond with run-off from a nearby pig farm owned by some wealthy hog traders.  The intern was a charity party regular and "walker" for many other bankers wives.  The disease rippled through the community of bankers wives and filtered down to the gardeners, interior designers, housekeepers, shopkeepers and everyone the wives had contact with.  And then, onward from that.  Because the busy stressed bankers were not around, or paying attention to their wives, they never became infected.  But everyone else dies.  The only remaining humans are the bankers and some escort girls.  The bankers and a few escort girls (the ones who did mail order shopping rather than go to the shops) live on, oblivious to the destruction around them.  And then, they all die too when a massive meteor falls from the sky.