Filtered swine

Recession is surely ebbing. Maybe it’s slow at the IT front, but the pharmaceutical and the surgical manufacturing companies are celebrating early Diwali. What with new viruses being discovered and the spurt in the sale of face masks and hand sanitizer. Not to forget the many immunity booster and the vitamins. Long queues of petrified people are seen outside the chemist shop, who doesn’t want to leave any stone unturned to ward off the swine that’s on loose or the inevitable death.

Suddenly, the Nokia N95 is seen fencing an unprecedented challenge from the less sung N95 respirator. Instead of marvelling at the technological extravaganga of the Nokia offspring, people are now exchanging notes on the different N 95s (not Nokia) in the market. (After all people need to air their view.) So, the long queues (of people) near the chemist shops.

I wonder, again an obscure thought, why has the government not called for a week shut down of the chemist shops? Surely, this is the current hot hang out destination.So, I am not surprised to hear of more swine flu cases getting registered.

People buy the N95 to ward off the swine. After all they get to breathe filtered air for 3 days. That’s what the manufacturing company and the chemist say “use the N 95 for 3 days”. But doctors say not to reuse it. They recommend cotton reusable mask.

(Talking about filtered air, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone comes up with an idea to manufacture ‘air guard’ or ‘pure air’; a cousin of aquaguard. The look would be something like a scuba diving mask with a small apparatus for 3 way filtration process.)

Coming back to N95 (again not Nokia), truly a blessing in these baneful times. No laughing matter. After all, it keeps the artiodactyls at bay! It purifies the ‘contaminated’ air. And we contaminate it further by throwing the masks on the road (Yaar, idhaar phek kachra already jamaa hai) and we queue up again to buy more masks and again throw it on the kachrae ka heap. Whoever said that our purchasing power has declined must be choking now. That’s what is keeping the economy on the move.

Entry of the street children and the rag pickers, non human, roadside pests, menace to the society, doesn’t matter to us if they fall ill. Population decline, less gundaegee (dirt) … the saga continues. We are God; we have the right to label humans. We only need to see that we are secured, secured from financial woes and illness, how these lesser mortal lives is of no concern to us. We get pest control done for our home, but don’t even give it a thought when we throw the small plastic wrapper or the chocolate wrapper from our air-conditioned car on the road, after all, the road is already gunda. And N 95, we throw it the farthest. Never near our home.

Ok, but there are concerned people too. They throw the used N95, wrapped in a plastic zip pouch, in their dustbin. How empathetic! These are the people who do their 2 bits for the society; gives charity regularly to the “Most” reputable NGO (gets the tax benefit). Wonderful! The garbage disposable van comes and collects the garbage in an open truck. The nicely wrapped used N95 too, finds a place in the open van. A strong wind and on the road (have seen this happening). And, it is the same story all over again.

To quote a doctor from the esteemed AIIMS, “Most N95 respirators are designed to filter 95% particulates of 0.3µ, while the size of H1N1 virus is about 0.1µ. Hence, dependence on N95 to protect against H1N1 is like protecting against rain with an umbrella made of mosquito net.”

If at all you need to use a mask, use cloth mask. The best bet is to use a clean handkerchief. You can go home and wash it. I am not even itsy bitsy surprised about the swine flu pandemic. Ye toh hona he tha!