It seems my daughter has swine flu. I say “seems” because the medical establishment assume she has, given there is infection in her school, and so they provide no testing, no consultation and courier Tamiflu over on a bike. Job done.

I’m happy to say that on (probably) day three, she is fine and is suffering no more than an intermittent temperature rise, which is brought down by Nurofen. The three other people in the house (myself included) appear to not have been infected yet, so the virus has thus far travelled to my house from Mexico but not across the upstairs landing (yet). They speak of 100,000 new cases every day, soon, in the UK.

I think there are some important facts here:

1 – When we thought this was a global pandemic of something like SARS or Spanish flu, there was mass hysteria. It died away when they realised that it would kill a very small proportion of people given its apparent strength. In fact, I’ve heard of Swine Flu parties, akin to measles parties, where people are trying to catch the virus on purpose, to build up immunity now – in case it mutates into the global killer we thought it would be. A small proportion of fatalities could still represent a large number of people — one of whom could be a family member of yours. What did the doctor do when we rang for assistance? He called someone to get advice from them. He then told us my wife to go to the chemist, even though she would have to take my daughter with her… the chemist was appalled and the end result was that the drugs were couriered to my house. However, the chemist said his time was being taken up by people and DOCTORS who didn’t know what to do. What if this really was – or turns into – a very dangerous threat? It’s gone to my area of Surrey very quickly from Mexico, it will be with you very soon, if not already.

2 – Should I go to work, knowing I’m very likely to contract this virus soon – if not already? Answer, yes, because I have no symptoms. However, I had a headache and pointed this out, but I also pointed out that I have headaches twice a week or so anyway (depending on stress levels and hayfever!). So — do I stay at home until next Spring in case I have pig flu? Or do I brush past an asthmatic with a poor immune system and kill them off, or a recovering cancer patient? If I should stay at home, we should all stay at home and then society would break down pretty quickly – you could see that from the petrol strikes a few years back.

3 – Should I tell my work colleagues? Would I want to know if someone else had it? If my work colleagues are having a big birthday bash, should I go, knowing I might be harbouring the potentially threatening new flu virus on my hand, even though in most cases it’s so mild you might not know you have it. My answers were “no”, “yes”, “no” when faced with it. You could argue the flip for each answer.

4 – Someone mused that this virus was probably experimental in a laboratory and was accidentally released by the very people who were experimenting in order to develop vaccines and drugs to combat this potential menace. If you look at pharmaceutical shares, you will see that they have outperformed other sectors in the stock market in this bad global recession – and are set to continue. Interesting thought. Oink, oink.

The biggest point is that hopefully, this will serve as a warning to those responsible for preparing for a (probably) more dangerous crisis. The usual seasonal flu virus could suddenly mutate, bird flu could become rampant, as could SARS, or some other plague. Sadly, I have no confidence that this wake-up call, romantically rumoured to have come from a flu-striken child in Mexico kissing a flu-striken pig, will shake anybody into real action – with the recession and next year’s election to fight, there’s just no appetite.