Interesting. All I’m hearing on the radio and in the Op Eds and so on is a bunch of commentary about how we are all fearful idiots, fearmongerers, doomsayers and so on.
I am, above all else, a contingency planner. I do not like surprises and I like to be prepared. When they tell us a blizzard is coming, I know that there is a chance we will not have a blizzard but I go out and buy break, milk, eggs and basics to get me through just in case. Does it hurt me to have stuff if there is NO blizzard? Of course not.
This is why I don’t get the mentality of some people. What is wrong with having some basic things in place. Nobody has a crystal ball. Nobody.
Stocking up on food is never a bad thing and should the crisis never occur, well now you can donate stuff to a food pantry - a win-win if you ask me.
We're with you on that.
I sure wouldn't hit the panic button unless this thing becomes more virulent, and spreads faster and farther- but being prepared is just good sense.
However in this instance there could be harm in getting antiviral drugs (which my oldest granddaughter has been taking for a couple of months, but unrelated to the flu) when you do not have the virus. If there were enough courses of them for everyone, then there would be no harm. But there are not enough courses. If you have a course tied up, someone who does have the flu might not get it. They will then spread it to others.
Right now it looks to me like they are trying desperately to "isolate" those who have it or could have it because of potential exposure. Since it can be spread *before* symptoms appear, isolating those merely exposed is required to "short stop" the spread. Thus we see whole schools, whole districts and even whole counties' schools, shut down for 10 days or so, about the time it takes for the virus to take hold and at least get to the symptomatic stage. After that, those who come down with it would know it, and presumably be kept home even after the schools reopen.