Should we be making contigency plans for swine flu?

H1N1 has been in the headlines more and more especially in light of students heading back to school last week.

You’ve no doubt had a primer on proper hand washing and sneezing into your sleeves instead of just letting it rip into clasped hands.

Interestingly, Microsoft has come up with a solution worth mentioning.

The world's largest software manufacturer has a plan to keep the teaching and learning going on even if a flu outbreak occurs. Microsoft has launched a learning center where teachers can begin to set up an account on Office Live Workplace to post lessons, presentations, student assignments and continue to share knowledge with each other. All of this is for free of course.

Well, we in the working world have access to these tools also, so what's wrong with taking the initiative now to do something similar? Working from home is a common option for companies. Putting a little more thought and action into a workable plan might just be the smart thing to do - just in case.

If US Homeland Security is taking it seriously, it seems prudent to take some initiative ourselves.
As Janet Napolitano of Homeland Security stated: "It is not possible to predict how the 2009-H1N1 influenza virus or the upcoming influenza season will play out, but it is best that we plan and prepare for a resurgence of H1N1 flu."