Koreans and the Swine Flu

In the whole time that I have been here, I have not felt a feeling of complete non-understanding as this whole situation with the Swine Flu. So here is this flu that is being passed around that no one has any immunity to because it is a brand new flu. It sounds a little scary when you hear that. Yet, if you read articles from the CDC and WHO, then you know that this was just a mass scare that although could have been bad- wasn't.When I first got to Korea, I was quarantined for 2 weeks. Ok, that could probably be understood. The Swine Flu was in the US and a quarantine was probably a good idea. 2 weeks was a little extreme, but if it made the parents feel safer then so be it. After this period, it seemed that the fear sort of dropped. At least until about three weeks ago. I, not understanding the Korean news and being out of school, had no idea the Swine Flu had hit Korea. I found it odd that every time I went on the Korean Air Base in the past three weeks, that the Koreans (wearing their masks) all took my temperature. I just figured it was a new policy and let it go. 1 week and a half ago I went out to lunch with Yunny who told me that the Swine Flu had hit Korea and 2 people had died from it. Well that explained the Koreans taking my temperature. I find this such an odd thing that they are so scared of this. Maybe it is the scientist in me but the Swine Flu is just a type of the flu. The people that died from the swine flu, would have probably died from a regular flu. "The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted that although this was a very serious virus, cases worldwide were usually mild, and most hospitalizations and deaths had been of persons that also had underlying conditions such as asthma, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, or a weakened immune system". Maybe it was just their time. Apparently I am a minority in this thinking here though. Yesterday I started back to school. As I am walking in the school, some of the teachers took my temperature with their masks and gloves on it. They were taking everyone's temperature before they were allowed in the school. Then they cancelled our school sports day set for a month from now from fear of the swine flu. I asked why because I could not grasp this idea. They told me because the families of the students would be up here and could pass on the Swine Flu. I told them back "If the families had it, then the kids would get it at home and pass it on." Like I said, apparently I am a minority in my thinking. So today I come to school and now they are more organized at the temperature taking. The only thing is that when they took my temperature, there was no cleaning of the ear cover or changing of the plastic. Completely unsanitary. I told Yunny that if a child did have the swine flu and they took his temperature and then took another child's, then they just passed the flu on. I am not so concerned with the swine flu as I am with ear infections. There are tons of bacteria that live in the ear. Yuck. I told them that I am bringing my own disinfectant tomorrow before they stick anything else in my ear. More kids have on masks today. The funny thing with the kids wearing masks, as I observed yesterday, is that they take it off in the classrooms. It's like their parents told them to wear it and they wore it just long enough to appease them. It's very amusing. I learned today that if any more cases of the swine flu hit Korea, then they are closing all the schools. Good grief. I mean how long can they do that? The flu in the US stays around for months. Are they going to keep the schools closed for months? The Korean's are very serious about this. I read a blog yesterday about a Hogwon teacher (Private Academies) that caught the Swine flu in Seoul. The doctor put him on a regiment of medicine and told him to check back in a week. His temperature was gone after the week. The school was not satisfied and said that he needed to stay home longer. He said fine, but I should still get paid because this is your choice for me to stay home. The administration threatened to fire him and five hours later they called him and did fire him. They stated the reasons that parents were threatening to pull their kids out if he came back. Ok, completely unfair and unnecessary. First, if the doctor cleared him then that should have been enough. Second, since he has had the flu already, he is the least likely to get it again. The children's parent's are more likely to give their kids the flu then this teacher at this point. The point of this is just to explain the seriousness that the Korean's are taking this. These are the same people that believe that fans can cause death by hypothermia, so I guess the Swine flu is a bigger deal than that! In their defense, there are millions of people squeezed very tightly together here. If there was to be a mass epidemic in one of the countries of the pandemic, it would probally be here. It is a good thing that the swine flu was not as severe as first thought. I just hope this whole scare will be over soon.