At coop mart they are handing out useless surgical masks when you spend over 200,000 VND. Chi just refused to take one point blank. "Don't give that to me...", she said, ah that's my girl, not caught up in this non-existent pandemic.A man came to change the toners in our Xerox wearing a mask. Chi asked "Why are you wearing that mask, are you scared of the swine flu?". "No", he replied, "I am wearing it because I thought you might be scared that I had swine flu". That pretty much sums up the madness that the WHO and the media have stirred up. "Take it off - in this house, no masks" quipped the wife.
The family keep whispering irritatingly ignorant points of view rebroadcast parrot fashion from the radio. "Don't take the baby around, it's not safe". Neighbours of the mother-in-law gossip to her - "Don't go to district seven, they have SWINE FLU there", Chi's friend not allowed to visit (despite being a grown adult). Two of our chefs from Connections Vietnam barred from working by their husbands because they might get SWINE FLU. People nattering on Facebook about WHERE TO BUY TAMIFLU (the proven to be dangerous and completly ineffective drug) in HCMC and if the vaccine is avaliable yet (untested and highly toxic, don't we ever learn anything?). Are they all crazy?!
How about less panic, fear and blind adherence to corporate media and more exercise, fresh air, healthy diet, vitamin D and good sleep. It's called an immune system people.
And yet we all have to go on, no matter how mad the world is.
But if anyone tries to take my temprature and certainly Chi's, look out because we can't garuntee where the thermometer will end up!
5 comments:
I'm guessing it's the *appearance* of doing something more than the actual doing. My son's school takes the temperature of every child through the gate and every adult that escorts them--except me. They can't reach my ear...
Medical "security" is just like any other form. It's often more theatre than anything else. If it puts people at ease, it must be good.
So the guy who came to change the toner was right - the mask protects you from him
Hear hear. It's funny here in Oz, which is one of the country's which has been hit the hardest, and as you know crazy about overbearing security and safety, there's absolutley NO swine flu hype at all. Good luck in the paranoid society.
Jon, you are doing your readers a disservice by spewing this incorrect information. N95 masks may not completely protect you from airborne viruses, but they do minimize the risks.
I work in a community hospital in America where we have seen first hand the rise in incidence of this novel flu virus.
I wear my N95. I know the risks. But it's better than no mask.
Did you not read the article linked in the post?
...N95 masks, you see, have but one purpose: To prevent the wearer from infecting others....
Plus I'm not sure they even have the N95 quality masks in Vietnam -certianly the ones most people wear are not.
I suggest my readers make their own minds up and not trust anything I say anyway.
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