When swine flies (Lone Ranger)

The good news is that we can put away our face masks and venture back onto the street without having to run away from passers-by who are blowing their noses. The Department of Human Services has now conceded that maybe swine flu is just another form of flu. I quote from today’s Herald Sun:

“Dr Lester (described as “Victoria's health chief”) stressed that so far the swine flu had not shown itself to be any worse than the normal seasonal flu and of the 212 state cases detected, just three were hospitalised and were in a stable condition.”

My wife, who is a GP, was required to don goggles, face mask and gloves to examine a suspected case of swine flu last week. From what she could make out during the course of the examination (she could hardly see or breath with the goggles and mask), the symptoms were identical to those of a common cold. We suspect, in fact, that the effects are roughly equivalent to those of a common cold too.

Funny how this whole scare has been led by health bureaucrats with not much else to do than prepare for health “emergencies” that never seem to materialise. The role of the WHO is, to say the least suspect. The last triumph this organisation had was the elimination of smallpox. Funny how a bunch of international health bureaucrats lead the charge on calling swine flu a “crisis” and “pandemic” – they have to justify their fat tax free salaries and living allowances after all.

Anyway, another bubonic plague type crisis averted, through the timely intervention of DHS and its guidelines on washing hands (use soap and water and lather for 15 seconds……).