7. Precautionary (and bizarre) merchandise is flying off shelves.
Quickly after the virus first surfaced, consumers became caught up in the hype about the pandemic, says Dr. Imperato; they turned to whatever precautionary merchandise they could get over-the-counter. Logical purchases included face masks and antibacterial soaps, but plenty of other companies have cashed in on the marketing craze in over-the-top and even unrelated ways, as well.
There are flu kits (complete with full-body suits), swine-flu-spam computer-virus protection, a viral stop-the-spread online game, and, of course, all sorts of pig paraphernalia.
8. Coughing and sneezing are practically federal crimes.
Symptoms of sickness may not be against the law quite yet, but there does seem to be an abundance of dirty looks going around in response to simple public throat clearing. It seems that everyone is more aggressively cautious of coughing and sneezing in public, and perhaps rightly so.
A simple sneeze sends as many as 100,000 droplets of germs from your mouth and nose into the air within 3 to 5 feet at about 100 miles an hour, according to CNN's AC360°. The germs can then hang in the air for up to a minute, so even if the droplets don't land on a nearby person, he or she could still walk through the germy cloud and catch a virus. Even worse, coughing or sneezing into a hand and then touching a public space, like a subway pole, a door handle, or a shared computer keyboard, spreads the range of the germs.
But even if you've seen dirty looks exchanged on the train or in the grocery store, it's probably a mild reaction compared to what Asian countries—which suffered through a deadly SARS epidemic in 2002 and 2003—are now experiencing. Jane Parry, a science journalist and researcher living in Hong Kong, notes that the emergence of H1N1 has strongly reinforced flu prevention techniques and attitudes about germ transmission.
"Handshaking fell out of favor during SARS, and it's totally acceptable now to not shake hands, especially if you are wearing a face mask," Parry says. "It's considered common courtesy now to wear a mask when you have a cold to protect others. Once swine flu came along, that expectation that you wouldn't cough near anyone else became even more pronounced. People would visibly reel away from you if you coughed."
In schools in Hong Kong, children with runny noses or coughs are required to wear masks, and any child with a fever is automatically sent home, Parry adds. Staff members working in food stores are also required to wear masks at all times, and Asian people are much more likely to wear face masks on airplanes, where air is filtered and recirculated through the cabin.
These measures may seem over-the-top to Americans, but is it possible they could become commonplace throughout the world? Only time will tell. For now, remember traditional cold and flu etiquette: Cough or sneeze into a tissue, or at least use your elbow and sleeve (instead of your hands) to cover your mouth.
