Conundrum at home
Idlan had another asthma attack this morning and everybody was rather hesitant about getting him back to school. We decided to miss today. Anita was worried that his classmates had been abroad during their 3 weeks off and may have contracted the flu. She wanted to 'quarantine' Idlan in the first week the school started. I thought that it was an overeaction, but after reading stories about how the young ones that contracted H1N1 being casualties, I can understand how Anita felt like that.
It seems that there is another U-turn in the government's effort to combat the virus. It seems that school closure is now back on the agenda. No throat swab for everybody unless they are really high risk needing hospital admission etc etc. Unfortunately the definitive and up to date information source is still lacking. This is an area that resources and effort needed to be put into.
To a certain extend, the damage has already been done with the clear panic amongst the general public. Even the health professionals are getting confused with which guidelines needed following. There are too many revision and it seems that the goal-post is being shifted on a day-to-day basis. For example, what is the government's stance on the use of PPE (personal protection equipment - facemask etc)? Is the normal surgical mask good enough. Do we need N95s? Are the mask needed at all? Everyone seems to think that the measly surgical masks are godsend and my local chemist is selling them for RM1 each! Easy money eh? I should just rid my ward cupboard and still a box of N95s .... easy bucks to be made there.
I can't stress this more, we need a portal for an accurate and consistent information. We are bracing ourselves for the second wave, and still I am waiting for the selsemababi.com.my to be launched!