What Kills Us This Week!

Such a buzz! I got a note from Blond Swine-Girl! It's below. She read this blog and saw that I had awarded her The Gold Medal for Sanity during the Swine-Flu House Madness and thanked me. Anyway this latest and hopefully last photograph of "Swine-Flu House" is for her:

Note the two Mainlanders
reflected in the glass.
They appeared to be de-facto guards
and were glaring at me
for taking this photo.

And, Blond Swine-Girl, note how it's taking them an entire week to clean up after your friend's visit! Every single bit of the hotel is to be steam-cleaned and disinfected in HK-style overkill. They were only going to do Mexican guy's floor except the hotel staff complained big-time so now they're doing the lot. Do tell Juliet. She probably got to know all the staff very well during her week as a Wan Chai Hostage and it will give her a laugh.

Also I should award another Honorable Mention; this time to Lois who took advantage of HK's Latest Threatdown to stock up on face masks:
She's a potter who wears them during the sanding stage of potting and mosaic-ing when dust flies everywhere, so having such a wide range of masks to choose from and being able to comparison-shop was a thrill, although some of the features each advertised had her bemused. Like, what are the advantages of non-elastic ear-loops?

Since we're still talking swine-flu here, it's obvious that HK remains in Threatdown-mode over this particular issue. The latest is that some of the folk who were on the plane with the Japanese trio who came down with it then came to HK so we rounded them up and herded them over to Princess Margaret Hospital to become the latest of our HK Hostages. Heck, thanks to SARS we have nearly 2000 beds in our various Isolation Wards so someone has to use them.

But, you know, I don't see the point of isolating these folk. I'll even go so far as to say it's a major mistake. See, back when I was a History teacher, for my stupider classes I created a unit called "Plague" which always caught their attention and kept them interested. Stupid kids always adore death and destruction and these Rolling Juggernauts of Doom were just THE BEST THING EVER! Anyway, in this unit we used to study all the different Pandemics back to Roman times and, when you study them all like that, one after another, a single huge fact emerges: that there is usually a first wave of the various diseases (except Ebola, Bubonic and Pneumonic Disease which hit hard and then weaken) which is relatively mild, and - here's the most important part - everyone who catches it then has an immunity from the SERIOUS KILLER WAVE that strikes nearly a year later.

So cough on me, you Mexican travelers! PLEASE!

Oh, and the other interesting thing about studying the history of Plagues is that, if you trace them all back to Ground Zero, you discover they always start in one of two places: either the Old Market in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia or in Peaceful Markets in Guangzhou, China. Both these markets have been around for over 8000 years and I used to tell the kids that, perhaps, there was something wrong with killing animals in the same spot for so long; that maybe the build-up of blood in the soil creates a breeding ground for disease, or, if we want to get all mystical and feng-shui about it, the build-up of fear and death creates an energy that cries out for revenge! Or maybe it's just that mixing so many animals and humans in such close proximity for so long, Ground Zero for a viral-species-jump is bound to happen.

And you probably already know that Ground Zero for this viral-species-jump turns out to be ... dah, dah ... Peaceful Markets in Guangzhou! Kinda! HK scientists have been doing the swabs and this disease turns out to be a descendant of 1968's HK Flu which killed thousands and which started in the market immediately up North. From the results, they are now saying it appears to have done yet another viral-species-jump to pigs in Alberta in Canada decades back, where it turned into a mild form until, several months ago, it mixed with the pigs own version of the flu and a human H1N1, and this is a mutated virus that combines all three forms now traveling among us. They are also saying that it won't be until Avian Flu gets into this mix - and it will, with 99.9% surety, since it appears this new virus has very efficient receptors - whatever that means! - that we will be seeing The Rolling Juggernaut of Death, Doom and Destruction!

So, for this week:

THREATDOWN

This policy of Isolation for this first wave!

Oh, and, before I go for today, another thing: as Jason pointed out, are you aware that, during this fortnight we've been big-time flubbing over swine-flu, 38,000 people over the world have died from regular flu, and that nearly 68,000 have died from T.B.

Margaret Chan, we love you and think you're 'just the ticket', but please, please, please, do re-examine your priorities!