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The symptoms are certainly there.

It started with diarrhea, then fever and basic flu-like symptoms. It certainly could be swine flu.

In theory we should all stay home so as not to spread it. But the clinic has other ideas. Although the personnel are well donned in green, almost from head to foot, parents and kids seeking help are not given so much as a mask. Instead we are told to go home and wait for the results. That could days. In the mean time the other kids are back to school and we as parents are told to go about life as normal.

Somehow I had expected something different. Of course we know that the current H1N1 bug isn’t as dangerous as it could be, but we are in a pandemic situation and surely if this thing is to be stopped we should, as a family, have stayed home?

I suppose most people are waiting for the vaccine or hopeful that current medications will be enough to stop the swine flu in its tracks. But truthfully, who is going to get a vaccine anyway? Countries like France want to vaccinate all 64 million people in the country, but how? Working 24 hours per day with every medical, health, first-aid person plus volunteers, the logistics of vaccinating 64 million people are overwhelming. And of course I don’t live in France. Nor is a vaccination ready.

Since June when the global pandemic was declared by the WHO (World Health Organization), I have seen relatively little preparation. Certainly we have the leaflets explaining symptoms and personal hygiene, which needs to be repeated. But running back and forth to a clinic seems more likely to help spread the flu bug, not deter it. I would have been happier if I had the offer of a face mask, perhaps at my local gas station and shopping mall.

One thing is for sure, if my daughter does have swine flu, it’s too late now. It has already been passed on.

If the virus mutates into something even more deadly, I certainly hope the system is prepared to do a better job of containment. At a school close by, the answer by the director was to charge money each time the kids washed their hands. Fortunately that got into the newspapers and the local counsel stepped in and forced them to stop. In some ways it seems for all our plans and “preparedness” we really are not as prepared as I had thought.

This has to get better before the fall flu season hits. In the mean time, I have been advised to send my daughter back to school as soon as possible.