H1N1

My class of 12 with only 3 students, for the last 5 days

Korea is very paranoid about swine flu. I think everyone is, but here it just seems really bad. I am really sick of hearing about it. Of course, the vaccine is over-rated and an expensive cost for governments. And H1N1 causes way less deaths than cancer, accidents, and HIV/AIDS, but those aren’t newsworthy. So the news has shaped a big part of public thought, and consequently a lot of people’s (over)reactions.

It started when we got off the plane here. They took our temperature as soon as we got of f the plane. If someone on the plane had a fever or fly symptoms, the whole flight was quarantined in new special disease control rooms at the airport. Thankfully this wasn’t out flight. It’s also really good that the other foreign teachers at our school convinced the supervisor to not quarantine us for a week before teaching. It also helped that we were arriving late because of paperwork delays, so it was better to train us and risk it than keep us locked up at a motel. A bunch of other teachers who got here spent a week with no contact just to make sure they didn’t have the flu.

There’s lots of other ways they are controlling the spread of flu. At the DMZ marathon everyone had their temperatures taken upon arrival. They had people in lab coats come around and sanitize everyone hands all the time. There is no shortage of hand sanitizer anywhere. We are supposed to spray each kid at the start of every class with it. All the teachers got their own little spray bottle. I am constantly hearing “Teacher, chick chick” from the kids wanting to get spray. The school checks all the kindergartners’ temperature every morning.

Some of the public schools are closing for a whole week or more. The government is thinking about closing all public schools for two weeks. They don’t really have any control over the hogwans, like our school. There’s been rumours about foreign teachers who get the flu and have to take a few days or a week off, and when they want to come back they find out they’ve been fired. There’s a big stigma about foreigners and the flu, how it spreads, and the school’s reputation. Some foreigners are being told they’re not allowed to leave the country for their vacations, or they have to take an extra week off after vacations to make sure they’re not sick.

The kids are sneezing and coughing on each other constantly. There are germs everywhere, no covering mouths, no washing hands. The kids also wear face masks a lot, but they don’t use them correctly. So it doesn’t really help them. The country is in general very crowded, especially subways and buses, packed cities, and shopping centres. Some kids are starting to miss a lot of classes. They’ll be out for a week, or a class of 12 will have only 4 students. Now everyone is getting worried about all the missed time.

My friend Christina was sick, and her school took her to an herbalist. They didn’t take her temperature, and gave her teas and herbs to get better. If she had the flu or a high temperature, it would have been really bad for her school. Chelsea actually had the flu, and got drugs, but her school still made her teach. Our school is closing for 2 days, so long weekend! I guess the flu is good for something.