The BBC did an article specifically about Japan in regards to swine flu. There are 90 cases here so far, and though none have been critical yet, everyone is in a crazy panic. All universities and high schools are closed. Everyone is walking around in surgical masks. Public transportation has become deserted ghost trains. My work has been cancelled for the next week and possibly for the week after that, as well. Masks are sold out everywhere.
I get emails every day from friends telling me to be careful. Everyone is really worried about my family back home. I wasn't worried about this swine flu until work got called off and I found myself the only person in the city without a bag of surgical masks. Should I be more worried about this swine flu than I am?
19 comments:
No. Hypochondriacs.
First of all, a cat in a surgical mask is the cutest thing EVER.
And secondly, I wouldn't worry about the swine flu. I hope you get paid for your week of missed work. Wash your hands and just practice normal precautions and you will be fine.
eh, if you are a hygienic person i don't see how you can acquire the disease. unless you are around someone WITH the flu.
i saw a guy at the mall wearing a mask.
despite it all i'm still going to japan this summer, it'll die down. like........mad cow disease annd the bird flu.
that's just how i view it as.
Hmm...perhpas you (or BBC) should be a little more specific?! Everything is functioning as per normal here in Tokyo!!!!! Certainly no ghost trains, closed universities or cancelled schools and hardly anyone at all walking around wearing face masks. Which part of Japan do you live??????
Carol
No, I wouldn't worry. Here's an exert from an article from:
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/editorial/20090519TDY04304.htm
"It should be noted, however, that as many as 10 million people are infected with seasonal flu every year in Japan and that 10,000 of them die from complications. This society has dealt calmly with that reality for some time.
No added danger
Experts agree the health risk posed by the new strain of flu is about the same as that of seasonal flu"
It just went up to 120 cases. Here is the BBC article.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/
asia-pacific/8054881.stm
"The number of swine flu cases in Japan has risen rapidly - with more than 120 cases now confirmed.
Nearly 2,000 schools and companies have closed, and the government has discouraged unnecessary travel to quell the spread of the disease.
Japanese media said the new wave in infections would make Japan the fourth-most infected country in the world, after Mexico, the United States and Canada.
Most of those infected are thought to be students in the Hyogo and Osaka prefectures in western Japan.
Experts believe the virus spread quickly between the two urban areas after high schools in Kobe and Osaka met for a volleyball tournament.
Kobe High School, along with nearly 1500 other schools in Hyogo, has now been closed, and several hundred more are closed in Osaka.
The outbreak has caused alarm in Japan, which with its aging population is exceptionally anxious about flu, the BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo says."
I am a salary lady, so this is a work at home week for me. I do get paid for it.
Sorry Carol. It's all over the news that the flu is almost only in Hyogo / Osaka. I didn't think I had to be more specific, especially since most people who read this know I live in Kansai now. Sorry!
The flu is almost only in the Osaka / Hyogo area.
i was gonna ask if it was only down in kansai! man kansai gets all the dramz.
BUT, just starting today, i swear, i overheard SO MANY swine flu conversations in the train and on the street. so maybe the hysteria is creeping up here. bring it! except i wouldn't get paid for canceled days so maybe don't bring it so much.
Ok, the effects of the swine flu are almost identical to those of plain old flu - and equally treatable! Japan is just a nation of obsessive hypochondriacs. :D
It's a new kind of flu, but it's no more contagious or dangerous, you just need to build up more immunities. But, like regular flu, people who live in unhygienic conditions with poor health care and weakened immune systems can suffer from it. That's why (to my knowledge) all of the deaths have been in Mexico (or, in the case of the one American death, have involved people from Mexico). They have poor health care and unsanitary living conditions because of the high levels of pollution and poverty.
Japan is totally safe. That's my impression, anyway. In the same period of time that swine flu's been around (150~ deaths), the number of "normal" influenza deaths has been in the thousands. Nothing new, here.
Apparently Asia reports on it a lot more than they do here in the US. We sorta take it as a joke, and honestly, swine flu is just another type of flu. It's just that people tend to go crazy when animals + diseases are associated.
And it's not like surgical masks help when you really think about it. I say don't worry too much - its a lot of hype atm.
I wouldn't worry about it. I think people are just being hypochondriacs. And, it certainly doesn't help that the media has hyped it up. Seriously, National Public Radio focused on the swine flu for nearly an entire week. And NPR kept saying the same thing-- aside from the cases in Mexico, the swine flu outbreaks have been relatively mild (as in, no one really has been laying on their deathbeds).
I think it's weird that everyone is freaking out about the Swine flu when the seasonal flu kills 200,000-500,000 people every year. The media doesn't hype that statistic up.
I think if you consume lotsa vitamin C, wash your hands, and don't share drinks, you ought to be okay.
Surgical masks actually don't help. Just wash your hands and all that crap.
And as for if you have it? You'll be absolutely miserable, so you'd know full well if you had it or not.
I wouldn't worry about it. I know I'm not.
i think you'll be okay. i'm in NZ and it was the 4th most infected country for a while, but a lot of ppl were quarantined and it's under control now.
also there was an article in the newspaper about asian countries (particularly japan) having the highest number of travel cancellations to countries infected with swine flu...
no. the stuff is the least deadly thing ever...even less than chicken pox, so go figure!
In my country (Chile) the flu appeared this week and everyone is like NOOOOOOOOOO, though there are no deaths!! I think it's hilarious
No, I think people are over-reacting a bit. Obviously I'd take precautions, but surgical masks? It just seems a tad ridiculous...
No, this is what Japan is really good at doing, overreacting. The news talk about it so much that its making people think they are in much danger than they actually are. It's so weird because I get the Japanese channel here in the US and when I watch the news they talk about it ALL THE TIME! American news has gotten over it at least 2 weeks ago unless when they talked about the woman that recently died. I live in Southern California, 30 minutes away from Mexico and no one is freaking out about it at all. If anyone should be wearing those mask it would be us but I only ever saw like one Chinese exchange student wearing one.
Also I usually go to Japan to visit my grandmother every summer but this summer we weren't planning on it. But my grandmother called recently and said it was a good thing we weren't coming because my aunt is so scared about catching the swine flu from us!! HAHA
H1N1 flu - meh. Not much here in Chicago. Just wanted to let you know I enjoy your blog, and follow up on a couple of your wish list items. I studied Japanese in Kyoto at Kyoto Kokusai Academy. (There were usually many Chinese students in intensive classes; our program was a non-standard curriculum devised for varying levels of Midwestern gaijin, so I'm not sure what you might be offered and how much it would cost). KKA is right behind Kitano Tenmangu Shrine - bus 201, among others, stops at Kitano Tenmangu-mae. There is a good tofu restaurant nearby, and Ritsumeikan is 10-15 min away -university shokudou are pretty cheap. With respect to learning Indian cooking - Madhur Jaffrey's cookbooks are good and the recipes are.tasty. She did two all-veg cookbooks, Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East Veg Cooking and Madhur Jaffrey's Complete Veg Cookbook. You might also look for a copy of Neelam Batram's The Indian Vegetarian (probably out of print).
Tokyo ha omoroi, ano cho ekakkoshii to omou. Metcha suki Kansai ya na. Mo, Shikago to Osaka ha shimai toshi desu.
(Sorry, T-Mobile's multilingual Blackberry OS doesn't include Japanese input - aho ya na.)
Hello !
I see you are teaching English in Japan, that sounds amazing .
I wanted to know if you could possibly help me ? :)
I want to go to Japan as well, but I know is not as easy to find a job in Japan as a foreigner as it is here in the US , so I'd love if you could give me some tips and what would be the easiest way. I'm a college student in Texas. How can you become a ESL teacher there? Do you know of other jobs opportunities for Americans?
Hope you can answer me :)
my email is akibakei@live.com
thank you very much
woah, so many schools and businesses are closed? there are 626 cases in ontario alone as of yesterday and no one seems too worried...
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