A while ago, I read this article in the Straits Times (1 Jul 09) about the "Herd Mentality." I really applauded the writer, because at that early stage of the H1N1 "crisis" in Singapore, I was annoyed, and particularly frustrated by the temperature checks going on all over the country - from schools, to hospitals, to airports. The amount of manpower and resources deployed to carry out these temperature checks were tremendous and I can only imagine that it was not all that fruitful in the end.

Not that I am a pessimist, or that I have a penchant for complaining, but the number of hours I lost in school teaching was tremendous - about 3 hours a week (out of a total teaching time of about 20 hours a week, which is 15%). At that time, there were 2 temperature taking sessions, one in the morning, and one before recess. The first one usually ate up the first 10 mins of the first period, and the second exercise takes 30 mins of the period before recess. So on a typical day, I spend 40 mins taking temperature during curriculum time. While some teachers might rejoice at loss of teaching time, a dedicated teacher as I am (hehe) certainly could not condone such a disruptive exercise.

And just when I thought that all of these was over, I was once again affected by restrictive H1N1 measures put in place today - this time when I was trying to visit my grandmother at the hospital. In the pre-H1N1 era, visiting hours were not enforced (not at CGH) anyway, and today, when I wanted to visit my grandmother at 3pm (my work ends at 2.20pm, and CGH is literally right across the road from my school), I was turned away and asked to return in the evening. I thought the rationale for having visiting hours is so that patients can have sufficient rest, so how is this linked to H1N1 then? In my opinion, visitors should be allowed outside of visiting hours, between 2 and 5pm, although they should still take necessary precautions (visitor tracing, face mask, etc), and that they do not create a din in the wards.

Anyhow, I'm into Week 7 of officially teaching already! Hurray!

Labels: H1N1, Teaching