Swine flu - big threat or small sneeze?

I am interested to hear how our clients and interims view swine flu? Is there a genuine threat that will significantly affect business and far worse lead to loss of life or will it be a couple of small sneezes and one day in bed. Like many I have had “man flu” an equally nasty strain but have to be honest I am far more concerned about swine flu as I have a very young family (soon to be 3 under 3) and also work in London so use the tube. I don’t mind getting it but don’t want to pass it to my family!

If you are one of our clients perhaps you may want to comment as to what sort of contingency plans you have in place if a large part of your workforce became ill. I am also interested to hear if it is on the radar of the SME market. With a brutal recession top of the agenda it may not get much of a looking. What of the interim manager? Has anyone turned down an assignment or thought twice about accepting one due to travel in airports or an international location?

At the other end of the spectrum I have heard of swine flu parties (can this really be true!?) a case of get it now, over and done with.

I suspect swine flu may prove to be an unpleasant experience – I hope it doesn’t effect any of us too seriously.

Doug Baird is Managing Director at Interim Partners.

2 Responses to “Swine flu - big threat or small sneeze?”

1. Mark Hendy Says:
   July 15th, 2009 at 8:18 am

   When news of this first broke I must confess that I was a little concerned. The media were telling us of hundreds of deaths in just a few days and the WHO were posturing as very concerned about a global pandemic. It seems that the WHO were right and that this is pandemic, but it also seems that it is far less innocuous than first thought. I’ve since heard statistics suggesting that many many thousands die in the UK each year from ordinary flu, mostly the elderly and sick and it seems to me that so far, some months on we’ve only had a handful of deaths most of which had underlying health problems as a result of Swine Flu. So I’m not unduly concerned anymore and in fact would prefer to contract it now and suffer for a few days during the summer months rather than get a worse dose this winter.

   As you see, my vote is for the “get it now and be done with it” brigade.

2. Doug Baird Says:
   July 28th, 2009 at 3:33 pm

   Mark
   Over the past few weeks I have “got used to the idea of getting it” Some of my friends have had it and have survived to live another day. It could be that the media has got a bit carried away. Thanks for your thoughts- Doug

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