Swine Flu - Changing The Sick Day Mentality

In the fall and winter of 2009 the swine flu scare was at its peak. The mainstream media and our govt health agencies did an excellent job of establishing fear when it came to the swine flu. Even though a large number of people die from the seasonal flu each year ( mainly elderly or already very sick people) we were told this would be much worse. They said it would attack young and healthy people that are normally not susectpable. The swine flu shot was promoted everywhere. They even came to places of work to offer mass injections.

Working in an office environment I began to notice a huge changes in people's psychology with regards to being sick. In the past if you were sick you would only stay home if you really felt bad and could not carry out your job. When you did call in sick people generally thought you were faking it or felt hung over from the previous nights drinking. If you were away for a few days people would talk about how these people were abusing the system. Many work places required a doctors not to prove you were sick and therefore had proof you were actually ill.

In the year of the swine flu this century old mindset had changed. Almost over night you were able to stay home sick without any question. The media had scared everyone so bad they wanted to make sure anyone with the slightest sniffle better stay home until they were 100% healthy. In fact if you coughed or sneezed a couple times you were pretty much forced to go home. I am one of those people that rarely get sick and when I do I just work through it. When I did get sick I was told I should go home in fear of spreading it to others.

Anytime I would cough around someone they would ask if I was sick. I told them I just had a small cough, they usually told me to stay away from them in fear of getting sick. In one meeting I sneezed and everyone stopped and looked at me. There was a pregnant women sitting beside me who decided to move to the other side of the room. I don't entirely think this was a bad idea, I had just never seen such an obvious fear of getting sick.

I finally did stay home the following day, not because I was too sick, mainly to avoid the slightly rude comments and strange looks.

Years later after the scare was over, the sick day mindset has not gone back to normal. When people are sick and decide to stay home it is not questioned at all. To this day I still can't believe how fast things changed and how the change was forced upon us by the govt and media. The scariest part is that I feel I am one of the few that noticed this change in behavior. Many people that I tell this story to don't really understand what I am referring to. Most think the change is good as it keeps everyone healthy. Some part of me agrees with this while another part of me thinks this is just another way for people to get extra vacation.

Maybe I am looking into this too much.