Could this be where the H1N1 virus made the species leap? Unlikely, but I still wouldn't reccommend it.
Ever since Swine Flu became the big media craze, organizations have been taking action and making contingency plans about what to do, and emergency rooms are being swamped with nearly three times their normal capacity as concerned parents bring in their children (most of whom fail to show any symptoms of ill health at all).
Even our own Pacific Lutheran University has taken actions, requiring all Resident Assistants to hold “Emergency Swine Flu Meetings” to inform students living in the dorm about the disease. The university health center also asked for suggestions on how they could make us feel safe and keep our spirits up. (My floor suggested we take it upon ourselves to act out this scene from Monty Python’s Holy Grail.)
As a result, we’ve seen a sudden rise in the number of hand sanitizer dispensers around campus, and are receiving constant e-mails discussing the various “what-ifs” and “how-to’s” of dealing with the epidemic. Pacific Lutheran University in the mean time has set up a webpage on the site that anyone can access. It updates frequently and details the current situation in Washington state and on campus. It also provides information on the symptoms to watch for, and how to determine whether or not your symptoms are severe enough to notify the health center.
If you would like to follow reported cases of the H1N1 virus worldwide, you can follow it with an interactive map on the FluTracker website.
