Nothing quite matches the pleasure of solving a pressing problem. It’s partly a sense of accomplishment and partly a sense of relief that the problem is out of the way.
I don’t know about you, but I often feel the same sense of relief if a problem temporarily goes away on its own. So when my son’s school reopened after suspending classes for a couple of days because of concerns about swine flu, I breathed a huge sigh of you know what. I almost felt I had accomplished something. No more worrying about whether my wife or I would be the one to stay home the next day. Of course, swine flu might return in the fall, but we had time to make contingency plans. Which we hadn’t done when the World Health Organization officially declared swine flu to be a pandemic.
There has been a lot of talk about whether the initial response to swine flu was overdone. That’s something no one will know except in hindsight. In Milwaukee, where I live, swine flu cases tripled in a recent week, from about 700 to more than 2,600. Maybe that’s because the early June weather has been unusually cool around here. Partly it reflects good tracking of cases. But it’s hardly an encouraging sign for the fall.
If nothing else, the WHO declaration is a reminder that the risk of swine flu is not behind us. It presents an opportunity for facility executives to take steps to ensure that their facilities are prepared if swine flu does become an even more serious public health emergency.
The staff of Building Operating Management will continue watching developments. Let me know if you have questions. We’ll do our best to find the information you need.