Posts Tagged ‘swing flu’

Our trip to China has begun, and to no surprise, it’s been interesting since the moment our plane landed.  Before we pulled up to the gate, the flight attendants told everyone to stay in their seats with cell phones turned off.  Then an army of people in white infectious disease suits and masks swarmed our plane to take everyone’s temperature.  It felt like a scene out of E.T. as these government workers beamed a red laser on each passenger’s forehead to test his or her body temperature.  One person in the back of the plane must have failed because they kept him and the entire section of people around him on the plane as the rest of us left.  If you’re flying to China and a person near you is coughing and sneezing, move!  For good reason, the government is aggressively clamping down on the Swine Flu to stop its spread.  Unfortunately, this means that they’re not only quarantining the sick, but also those sitting nearby who may have been exposed.  I’ve read stories about the extensive reach of the Chinese government in its citizen’s lives (for example, Facebook and YouTube are blocked in China), and already we’ve seen an example first-hand.  We have several friends who live in China, and when we told one about the incident, he said simply: “No problem, that kind of stuff happens all the time.  It’s China.”