Swine flu seems just an ordinary flu

The flu might have been brought from North America during the Golden week. The Golden week is a week of consecutive holidays from April 29 to May 5. Maybe because of the incubation period those who were infected were not detected by the machine at the airport. But this is not my concern because it's a waste of energy trying to figure out how the virus got inside the country. After all, these virus doesn't have a passport LOL.

Kidding aside, this virus has caused a big problem in Japan not because of its danger (only 80 something people died out of 10,000 infected which means 0.08% mortality rate?) but because of the scare that it has brought to the people. Why is it a big deal in Japan?

I am not an expert but I can guess. 1.) The same type of virus has caused millions of deaths in Spain in the 1930s. 2.) Japanese are crazy about cleanliness to the point close to paranoia. 3.) Japanese society is aging which means lots of people are in danger not from the flu but from its complication... i.e. diabetis.

Is the flu dangerous? In my research in the internet, (although it's not good to believe everything in the internet) I don't think it is that dangerous for the following reasons: 1.) as I mentioned above the death caused by the disease is only 0.08% and probably not directly caused by the disease but by a complication of other disease. 2.) You can't have it by just breathing, in other words, it is not air borne. 3.) There are medicines available and were proven to work. In fact, as of this moment, there hasn't been any report of death in Japan and those who have been diagnosed have recovered. 

Prevention is better than cure. How to prevent contacting it? This is what the expert says.

1. Wash your hands as often as you can.

2. Don't touch your mouth, nose. If you have a bad habit of touching them you can avoid this by wearing a mask.

3. Avoid crowds. If you can't wear a mask.

Purpose of Wearing Masks: 1. to prevent you from touching your mouth, nose. 2. Prevent spreading the virus if you have it but have to be changed regularly coz germs could accumulate on it after a long period of use. The ideal is to change it every 2 hours. Other than this? NONE.

So, the craze and obsession in japan of wearing masks even in less crowded area is an indication how scared or paranoid the people are. The worst part is that there is a scarcity of mask. The makers were not prepared because this is not the "mask season" (hay fever is widespread in early spring). Thousands of masks are imported from China but were not enough. The opportunists are taking advantage of this crisis by overpricing them. One extreme example is a box of 10 masks sold at 4,000 yen on the internet. (I heard this testimony on TV and haven't confirmed it yet.) However, some wiser people became creative. They've found a cheap way of making masks using kitchen paper (see video).

Schools closed. When a group of volley ball club students contacted the virus some 4,000 schools (preschools to universities) were closed for a week. However, when a student from another prefecture was infected, their local government only closed the junior high schools and above. The reason? They can take care of themselves but the younger children can't since their parents are working. Most people think the reaction and decisions made were unreasonable.

Some say, this is going to get worse in autumn. But maybe the people will realize by that time that there is not really something to worry about. And this panic will just die down.

Only one thing I pray: that this virus won't rich the poor countries for it will be a different story.

Take care of yourselves.