Has Fear of H1N1 (Swine Flu) Changed Your Routine?

[Principessa]

From Altar Wine to Beer Pong, Flu Fears Curb Life’s Rituals

Yolanda Ray works in the kind of place where people “really love to eat and snack.” Colleagues are quick to tempt one another, she says, with homemade dishes and sugary treats laid bare for the taking on desktops. Before the age of swine flu, the arrangement was fine. But now, employees at Rudd Equipment in Louisville, Ky., have new company-wide directives: No sharing of unwrapped candy. Cakes and pies must be cut and wrapped at home. Food needs to be served with utensils. She added, “Sometimes I feel like the swine flu police.”

In offices, churches, hospitals, college dorms and schools — and even at yoga classes and in apple orchards — the fear of swine flu is turning age-old rituals on their head. What used to be O.K. is not anymore, as the flu has ushered in new standards of etiquette that can be, in turns, mundane, absurd and heartbreaking. Students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., are being asked to refrain from playing beer pong, a communal drinking game, after an outbreak of illness that officials feared might be swine flu. Roman Catholic parishioners of the Diocese of Raleigh, N.C., have been instructed by the bishop not to shake hands at the sign of peace, and wine is not being offered for the sacrament of communion.

As many of you know I am kind of a germaphobe. :redface: I also have the immune system of a 2 day old infant. :irked: Yet, I am not freaking out about H1N1, because I'm already doing most of the stuff the CDC and various health officials recommend in so far as hand washing and cleanliness.

I think it's time for the religions who do communion from one chalice or cup to change. The first time I went to a church where everyone drank from the same cup I was about 7 years old and I was HORRIFIED! :yikes: Even then I knew that 100 people drinking from the same cup was a great way for germs and sickness to be transferred. I know that the Priest or Reverend wipes the cup with a cloth which has allegedly been soaked in alcohol or some disinfectant after each sip. I just don't buy that it is really disinfecting after the 10th person or so. As for the 'Passing of the Peace' , I have never liked that tradition just because of the germ thing. During cold and flu season I find myself making mental note of just who is coughing and sneezing into their hand so that I know NOT to shake their hand at the 'Passing of the Peace'.

In the church in which I was raised, we took communion from individual mini-silver chalices. None of this cross-contamination business happens in any of the dozens of United Methodist churches I have attended since childhood. In my current church they use miniature clear plastic cups. Kind of like the Nyquil cup, but smaller. :biggrin1: I like this because they are disposable. :smile: There is no question that so-and-so didn't wash & polish them properly; because you get a new one each time. :smile:

Has Fear of H1N1 (Swine Flu) Changed Your Routine?​

 

[Pendlum]

Nope.

 

[DiscoBoy]

I keep forgetting it exists, so no, it hasn't affected my routine in the slightest.

As for the 'Passing of the Peace' , I have never liked that tradition just because of the germ thing.

When I was younger and went to church, that was the one part of it I actually enjoyed. My brother and I would make an exaggerated scene out of shaking each others' hands.

 

[Principessa]

I keep forgetting it exists, so no, it hasn't affected my routine in the slightest.

When I was younger and went to church, that was the one part of it I actually enjoyed. My brother and I would make an exaggerated scene out of shaking each others' hands.

Do you even have germs in the frozen tundra that is Canada? :lmao: :biggrin1:

 

[D_Landrocke DeLonguepiece III]

I am in the healthcare field full time, and am around dozens of people every day who have the flu. Not a big deal to me. Nothing has changed.

 

[Pendlum]

I am in the healthcare field full time, and am around dozens of people every day who have the flu. Not a big deal to me. Nothing has changed.

Since you work in the medical world, have you heard about getting one flu, and then the other flu comes along and makes a SUPER flu? Because someone tried to sell me on that a few days ago.

 

[Principessa]

I am in the healthcare field full time, and am around dozens of people every day who have the flu. Not a big deal to me. Nothing has changed.[/QUOTE]Okay, but as a health care worker you probably have a strong immune system, much like teachers do. Like me, you probably already have a 'clean routine' so you don't need to alter your behavior.

 

[Northland]

I think it's time for the religions who do communion from one chalice or cup to change. The first time I went to a church where everyone drank from the same cup I was about 7 years old and I was HORRIFIED! :yikes: Even then I knew that 100 people drinking from the same cup was a great way for germs and sickness to be transferred. I know that the Priest or Reverend wipes the cup with a cloth which has allegedly been soaked in alcohol or some disinfectant after each sip. I just don't buy that it is really disinfecting after the 10th person or so. As for the 'Passing of the Peace' , I have never liked that tradition just because of the germ thing. During cold and flu season I find myself making mental note of just who is coughing and sneezing into their hand so that I know NOT to shake their hand at the 'Passing of the Peace'.

... None of this cross-contamination business happens in any of the dozens of United Methodist churches I have attended since childhood. In my current church they use miniature clear plastic cups. Kind of like the Nyquil cup, but smaller. :biggrin1: I like this because they are disposable. :smile: There is no question that so-and-so didn't wash & polish them properly; because you get a new one each time. :smile:

Has Fear of H1N1 (Swine Flu) Changed Your Routine?​

I remember well those days of Methodist Church communions-back when I went to church. Pastor Gobblespunk or his trusted assistant (usually one of the Board of Trustees la-di-das) would hand us the crumb of bread-by hand-not by use of tongs, so more friendly germ passage (like you didn't have enough to worry about), then the little plastic thing with juice. After finishing the juice we placed the empty in the little slot in the communion rail (all the time wondering if our hair and ass looked okay as we kneeled down and the other parishioners saw our backsides). I know I used to be slightly sickened by the bread piece being handed to me by a moist hand which had contacted other hands before my nibble of the 'body of Christ'.


As to my sanitary routines, they're the same as before. If I touch another person's hand I try to wash shortly thereafter, all the time avoiding letting the hand near my eyes, mouth or nose.



One other thing-are you sure the church is disposing of those cups? Some actually wash and use them again.

 

[vince]

LOL@ "Passing the Peace"... haven't heard that in years! It's what we use to say when we passed the pipe in first year uni.

I contracted the Frog Flu last month in France. I'm just about over it now. It wasn't much a stuffiness/headcold thing, as it was a fever that would come and go and being super tired all the time. I've never slept so much in my life. I'd be feeling fine, thinking "ahh it's nearly over", then go out for a walk, get about 100 yards down the road, break into a sweat and drag my ass back home to sleep.

Traveling is a dangerous time for contracting contagions. You are out of your usual routine and often in enclosed environments like airplanes and trains. So yes I should have altered my routine and been more careful.

 

[HazelGod]

Super flu?

Man, I would love to see something like what King predicted in The Stand...a disease with 99.9 communicability and 100% mortality. Fascinating.

But H1N1 isn't it. Sadly.

 

[Pendlum]

Super flu?

Man, I would love to see something like what King predicted in The Stand...a disease with 99.9 communicability and 100% mortality. Fascinating.

But H1N1 isn't it. Sadly.

Well she said her doctor said that they can combine and mutate into something. I don't take much stock in it, I figure it is just the doctor trying get her vaccinated by spooking her, since she is kind of gullible at times, or at least that is my impression of her.

 

[Lex]

Nothing to change. I have been practicing good habits since I first taught school.

Most people do NOT wash their hands often or at all. I wash my hands religiously and I don't touch bathroom doorknobs or faucet handles without covering my hand with a paper towel.

Better still, I don't touch my face, put my fingers near my mouth and I don't dig up my nose.

I clean my phone and keyboard once per week.

Really, all this talk of catching this flu really comes down to simple things you can do to not infect yourself with ANY germs, not just H1N1.

 

[Principessa]

As to my sanitary routines, they're the same as before. If I touch another person's hand I try to wash shortly thereafter, all the time avoiding letting the hand near my eyes, mouth or nose.

One other thing-are you sure the church is disposing of those cups? Some actually wash and use them again.

Are you kidding me? You can't sterilize plastic!! That's why it's disposable. :irked:

Nothing to change. I have been practicing good habits since I first taught school.

Most people do NOT wash their hands often or at all. I wash my hands religiously and I don't touch bathroom doorknobs or faucet handles without covering my hand with a paper towel.

Better still, I don't touch my face, put my fingers near my mouth and I don't dig up my nose.

I clean my phone and keyboard once per week.

Really, all this talk of catching this flu really comes down to simple things you can do to not infect yourself with ANY germs, not just H1N1.

Yup :yup: I also wipe down the doorknobs inside the house with clorox clean up once a week.

 

[Rubenesque]

I work in a place where hundreds of members of the public (often unwashed) come through the doors every day, and being a front facing member of staff I'm subjected to all their germs. The way my employer is combatting the fear of swine flu is to provide anti-bacterial wipes for desks and keyboards, and anti-bacterial hand gel.

All very good...

except that swine flu is a virus not a bacteria, so frankly, we're buggered! The sheer numbers of people who come in, combined with the awful air circulation we have (it's been assessed as a "sick building") means we're almost certain to fall victim to the virus, and once one of us has it it will spread like wild fire.

Deep joy!

 

[Rubenesque]

ps - of course you can sterilize plastic... which is why babies bottles are made out of plastic and are sterilized daily.

 

[Industrialsize]

H1N1 is no joke. I HAVE IT!........I've been in bed sick for 2 weeks now an am JUST starting to get better. I guess I won't need to be vaccinated. Somehow my husband hasn't gotten it from me.

 

[Rubenesque]

Did you take tamiflu Ind? One of my colleagues got swine flu and said she felt 100 x worse after taking the meds.

 

[Industrialsize]

Nope...........No tamiflu. Just rest......and lots of NYQUIL!..........sleep has been my friend. It has been the worst flu of my life. Thank heavens it seems to be getting better on its own.

 

[Ric1]

Tamiflu should only be used if risk outweighs benfits and not some 16 year old on the end of the computer should be a doctor plus half the pharmacies have no idea who is giving tamiflu out Uk only i can't say about anywhere else. plus lots of people have had it without relising that they have had it. I could understand if the deathrate was higher but it is really low for a flu virus anyway but it is possible that it has mutuated into a new strain.

 

[Drifterwood]

Been frontline with SARS, Bird Flu and now Swine Flu. I'll be fucked when they get Sheep Flu.