I must say that it was all rather a disappointment. The media had led me to believe that it was a cross between Ebola and the Night of the Living Dead. In fact it was a moderately nasty flu that only led me to take one full day off work.
I guess I will have to get my sympathy from you while I can because most of us will have experienced it by the years end and will realise just what a damp squid it really is.
I played my own part in the media hype. I even wrote an article on survivalism, naming the flu as one of the most likely disasters.
People actually enjoy a bit of national emergency. As soon as I was able to get out of bed I visited my local Tamiflu dispensary to pick up my fix. This was my local doctors surgery but with lurid posters pasted all over it. 'National Flu Pandemic!' they said- to give an appropriate sense of drama and excitement.
Staff had been drafted in to man various computers. The flue sufferer would come in and give a reference number that they had previously obtained over the Internet. This would then authorise the nurse to hand over the necessary drugs.
The strangest thing was that everyone was having such a good time. It is not every day that one is part of a pandemic after all.
The most stupid aspect of all was that if a person is able to make it to the surgery they have recovered from the bug and probably no longer need the drug anyway.
I did not mention this as everyone was enjoying the drama so much.
