The boy who cried wolf!

This morning I woke up inspired to write about the story that I heard so often as a child. We would play tricks on each other and call out someone to come when there wasn't anything wrong just for fun. The boy who cried wolf is a similar tale. The boy lived in a village and would tell the farmers that their sheep were in danger. The farmers would go off into the mountains and herd their sheep back to safety. All the while the boy would laugh at how stupid the farmers were to go after he told them. One day the boy actually did see a wolf but this time none of the farmers went because they thought he was joking. He had told them too often about this danger and eventually the boy stopped believing them. 

I had a lovely conference call last night and we all spoke about the swine flu (H1N1) and how we were all warned about the pandemic and how dangerous it was but it didn't reach us - any of us! In 2009, I was working in Baxter Healthcare as a programmer analyst writing programs for different entities across Europe, these were usually workflows within Baxter writing in Java using either Pega Systems or JavaScript for Sharepoint. I had learnt of the swine flu pandemic coming our way and at the time I knew several people with asthma. As far as I remember Baxter sold the vaccine to Glaxo-Smith Kline (GSK) and it all happened quite quickly without any real things to worry about. We carried on with our lives and the vaccine was distributed to pregnant women, the elderly and people at risk who already had respiratory diseases. The schools distributed these and doctors had GSK deliver them. The vaccines had to be ordered in some cases if they were 'live' vaccines and the GSK vaccine had mercury in it so the shelf-life was longer. I remember some of the details as I know a few people who had to receive the vaccine. The worry wasn't there though and people didn't seem to have to stop their lives! 

We are now in another pandemic except it is like the boy who cried wolf. A lot of people who lived through the swine flu pandemic didn't take this time too seriously. We are now faced with real danger as the countries shut down to protect the people at risk and hospitals are overrun with large numbers of people facing real issues breathing and some are facing organ failure. Unfortunately for some it seems they are still not taking this issue seriously and it is something to be taken seriously especially when you hear of so many in their thousands dying in Italy and hundreds dying on a daily basis only from Italy alone! 

We are now faced with staying at home, social distancing and the world has changed all because of a pneumonia that started with one person initially. The numbers are staggering and unfortunately the virus is more persistent on surfaces than any other. The alcohol rub-downs won't do it, it's a case of washing hands thoroughly and not touching your face or if possible wearing gloves and staying away from other people. It is a time to try to find some balance in our newly constructed world and all of a sudden we find ourselves checking in on people that we hadn't spoken to in a while to ensure that they are healthy and safe. We are in a way more connected and people are making more of an effort for online-chats than ever before as we sit down with groups of people on conference call software to find out the situation in their country and encourage each other that it will all be fine.

If Anne Frank can last as long as she did in a tiny area then we are fine. It is a different time, we can still go to the shops, enjoy the sunshine, talk to people, move freely (somewhat) by going to the shop and or pharmacy or even a walk. Although we can't do a lot together, we can check on each other, reach out to each other and encourage each other during this troubling time. We can listen to each other and hear each other's concerns and worries and we can also laugh at the absurdity of the entire thing. We can laugh at the memes going around the Internet. We can try to ensure we laugh at least once a day - laughter is the best medicine and it can help a lot of people cope while experiencing loneliness and we can also reach out to the elderly and people at risk if they need help. We can be there for each other like we weren't before. Now is our chance to build real communities and uplift each other.