Swine Flu Be Damned!

Did I mention the precautions the Chinese are taking to avoid swine flu? It all started in LA where I had a 5-hour layover on my way to China. Almost every Chinese person in the international terminal was wearing a surgical mask. The biologist in me scoffed a bit at this and wondered if they actually believed their surgical masks would protect them from the dreaded swine flu. Some of the masks looked pretty high tech so I am sure they did their research and found the best possible protection from the looming threat that we now call H1N1. On a side note, it seems a bit ironic that my first trip to China was shadowed by the threat of swine flu when some years ago I almost went to China with Noel for his job and the trip was cancelled due to SARS. Back to the point: my masked comrades and I boarded the plane anyway- swine flu be damned! I must say that you are never more aware of your bodily functions until you spend 14 hours sitting next to a masked stranger who looks at you with dread every time you cough. Forget coughing—try sneezing a hundred times like I do. I thought they were going to make an emergency landing just to get me out of the plane. I can also tell you that 14 hours does not pass quickly in a plane. I have never been so happy to land in my whole life as I was when we arrived in Shanghai. I was so ready to get off that plane but something was not quite right. No one was moving. Then an announcement- no one could exit the plane until they had their temperature taken. I didn’t think they were serious, but let me tell you they were more than serious. Two guys boarded the plane in full hazmat uniforms and some sort of gun-like apparatus.- not kidding. Turns out it was a thermometer that read your temperature by shooting a laser at your forehead, which I must admit was pretty cool. Even cooler was that we were all deemed ‘normal’ and were allowed to enter the country. Woo Hooo! Everyone thought the threat was behind us once we got a few days under our belts in Beijing but on day two of our class our hotel was notified by the Central Government’s Health Department that some of our classmates needed to report their temperature, twice a day for seven days, to make sure they were not infected. These particular students flew out of San Antonio, which the Chinese figured to be a hotspot for swine flu. It all seemed a bit a comical but true. So, the long and the short of it…the image you see here is me, Kelly, and Mike wearing the surgical masks that Mike was given by the government (he was one of the sickies who flew in from SA). The masks were included with a package that include a thermometer, spreadsheet for recording his temp, and surgical masks to wear if he felt so inclined. We all got a kick out of it…thought you would too. Whatever they are doing is working I guess. None of us have swine flu.