An Ounce of Prevention

The people of Hong Kong seem to be very public health minded.

There are hand sanitizer dispensers mounted in almost every train station and shopping mall. Many people choose to wear those disposable medical masks whenever they are in public which makes many of the commuters on the train look like they are ready to perform an appendectomy at the drop of a hat. I have yet to figure out if they are wearing the masks because they fear picking up a virus from the rest of us, or if its because they are under the weather and are trying to protect the rest of us.

In the midst of the 94 emails we received from the school in the two weeks prior to our departure, was one email reminding the four of us to wear face masks on our fourteen hour flight from the States.

Which of course we did.

All four of us.

The whole flight.

All fourteen hours.

And because of the H1N1 virus, this spring our school started taking the temperature of every person who enters the building. I ran across the street this morning to pick up a quart of milk for breakfast and sure enough, when I came back in through the parking garage, I had my temperature taken just in case I had picked up the H1N1 virus at the QuikMart and developed a tell-tale fever in the eight minutes I had been out of the building. In the spirit of all things high tech, the security guard at the school uses a Star Trek phaser-inspired devise that he or she puts to within a centimeter of your forehead and then pulls the trigger. The gun clicks and then gives an instant temperature reading.

In Celsius of course.

Hong Kong has a disproportionately high occurrence of the H1N1 virus. But conversely, they have had among the worlds lowest death rate due to H1N1. Must be all this preventative action they take.

Maybe the rest of the world should considering wearing those blue medical masks when they go out in public. Besides, you never know when you will be called upon to perform an emergency tonsillectomy on a moments notice.

-Jack