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Will a WHO panic stop the flu?

By | June 11, 2009, 5:48 AM PDT

The World Health Organization (WHO) looks set to announce that the swine flu is now a global pandemic.

Whether it deserves to be a Stage 6 or Stage 5 pandemic it is already, in many parts of the world, a full-on panic.

While visiting China, Taiwan and Japan the last few weeks I found panic well underway.

It started with our entry to Shanghai almost three weeks ago. Before the plane docked at the gate a crew in bunny suits came on board and scanned everyone’s temperature. Anyone who failed the scan was given a second test.

We all passed, but not all do. New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin was quarantined for a week after my arrival, and never got to see the country. Once he was released from a Shanghai hotel headed to Australia.

Everywhere we went the last weeks we saw people wearing surgical masks. Everyone at the customs gates had them. So did nearly all food service workers. So too many ordinary people.

In Japan people were handing out free masks on the street. On our plane coming home one Japanese man wore his mask almost to the gate at Chicago.

There everything was quite different. There were no masks at customs and on our flight to Atlanta two men coughed constantly, yet no one paid them any mind.

The Wall Street Journal has taken to ridiculing the Chinese attitude, which is based on the SARS epidemic earlier this decade, contained by similar efforts. (SARS was also a much more deadly virus than the present swine flu strain.)

Between the oriental panic and occidental laissez-faire there lies a responsible policy.  Even before this pandemic we were approaching a general vaccine for H1N5, the seasonal flu, and the same discovery process can be applied to H1N1 as well.

Meanwhile you can cover your coughs, wash your hands regularly, stay home if you have any flu symptoms, and support funding for efforts to track the flu’s spread.

The masks don’t work anyway.

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Dana Blankenhorn

About Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn was a contributing editor for SmartPlanet from 2009 to 2010.

Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn

Contributing Editor

Dana Blankenhorn has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age's "NetMarketing" supplement and founded the Interactive Age Daily for CMP Media. He holds degrees from Rice and Northwestern universities. He is based in Atlanta.

Follow him on Twitter.

Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn has been a technology reporter since 1982, a business reporter since 1978, and a writer for as long as he can remember. His Schwab IRA has a few tech stocks in it, most notably some Intel and Applied Materials bought over 10 years ago. But the vast majority of his tiny fortune (emphasis on the word tiny) is invested in mutual funds. He presently writes for no one else but ZDNet, SmartPlanet and himself. But if you've got an opportunity let him know. If he takes the gig he"ll first add it to this disclosure page.

He writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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We have been living in Montana for the past 5 years and I am not supri sexy shop to find it #3 on the "worst" list. Considering a sexshop move to Idaho to escapthe high cost of living a low income in MT. There may not be a sales tax here but they get you if you own property!

Where does Idaho rank? We have been living in Montana for the past 5 years and I am not supri sexy shop to find it #3 on the "worst" list. Considering a sexshopmove to Idaho to escapthe high cost of living a low income in MT. There may not be a sales tax here but they get you if you own property!
Posted by filhomarques
21st Jul 2011
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