Krisinformation.

Mitt modesta förslag. Och när jag blir stor ska jag jobba på krisinformation.se, och skriva griniga insändare på min fritid. Jag börjar liksom ana talangen. (Fast jag förstår inte varför vissa ord och delar i texten blir lite svartare än andra.)

A modest proposal

This time of the year is not only the season for long walks in crisp air or cozy nights with candlelight, saffron bread and mulled wine. It is also the season of the ghastly winter vomit disease. Every year it is the same story: despite the fact that we all know how the illness is spread and how we should protect ourselves and our loved ones, people are falling like trees in a storm by the infection. Everywhere we are informed about the best way to stop the spreading: wash your hands regularly - up to 30 times a day - and stay home from work and school at least two days after having the last symptom. Despite all this information the disease is spreading like wildfire every winter, causing enormous problems  and suffering for both the individual and society as a whole.

More effective steps must obviously be taken to stop this public hazard from spreading, and for this I hereby present two modest proposals:

• make the infected obligated to report their infection to the authorities (center for disease control)
•  gather all children up to the age of 15 in special institutions during the winter (November – March)

An obligation to report the illness to the authorities will be effective in above all two ways. For one thing, you easily get an accurate picture of the ways of infection and where the disease is spreading at the time, and will through this mapping be able to send out warnings in time to individuals in risk categories.  Second, and even more important, you get the possibility to reprimand individuals that do not follow the given prescriptions: preferably by fines, and after repeated non-observance of these restrictions concerning the disease, individuals may even be forced into quarantine and probation. Obviously, people cannot be trusted to handle their illness in a proper way and thereby prevent themselves from spreading the disease to their environment. The authorities must therefore take forceful measures to force the population to take this responsibility.

The most important and effective improvement is to be done in child-care. As we all are aware of, children are the paramount factor in the spreading of all types of diseases, and day-care centers play the role of centers of transmission. It is from these places children bring home various diseases to their parents who in their turn - due to the bad hygiene and lacking responsibility considered above - spread it further to their work colleagues. The most efficient way of hindering the spreading is simply by detaining all children under the age of 15 in special institutions of quarantine during the most affected time of the year (November – March), thereby preventing contact with anyone but the specially trained personnel living with the children.

This may at first be experienced as rather harsh ways of dealing with the – by some people considered “natural” - problem, but obviously mere information is not enough, and greater and more forceful steps must be taken to solve this grave societal problem. The suffering of every individual in this death-like state, and the costs the illness is causing companies and society as a whole, must not be underestimated and brushed under the carpet. These solutions are inevitable if we want a sustainable future and a strong economy.

It is either this or that you people learn to wash your hands properly.