Student SPHere 2008-09

Well the past few weeks have certainly been interesting. Work has been far more demanding that is usually is, as everyone started dealing with the novel H1N1 (the virus formally known as swine flu) outbreak. School is finishing up; I am now done with all my assignments for this semester, just two finals to go now. That’s a huge relief, as my time has been very limited since the outbreak began. Thankfully things are starting to calm down a bit. It will be interesting to see how things play out with H1N1, as nobody really knows what will happen next. Will a second wave occur? Will it start causing severe disease or stay mild? (I don’t know about you but the last time I had seasonal influenza, a “mild” disease, I was out of commission for almost a week, so mild is somewhat relative.) Will business stop caring about pandemic planning?

On May 4th the FDA/CDC put out a joint press release about “spot shortages” of supplies for treating and preventing influenza. Evidently when a nation suddenly ramps up their purchasing habits for specific items, the supply chain is not elastic enough to meet all the surges in demands. Most folks dealing with supply chains could have told you that would happen. Needless to say this has really stimulated my academic pursuits around public health issues relating to supply chains.

I am quite anxious for weds to come, that’s the day of my last final, biostats. It will be nice to be done with classes for the summer. This has been a pretty challenging semester for me. My grandmother was diagnosed with cancer (she is doing ok and has had more tumors removed) and I have been involved in my first public health emergency (H1N1). Both of these events have consumed quite a bit of my time. Thankfully I have had some very caring and understanding professors this semester (I am sure other semesters would be no different) who worked with me to make sure my academics did not slip. Its always nice to know that when things get interesting in your personal or professional life, the support is there help you keep balance and keep you moving towards your main goal, education.

I don’t know about you, but I am loving the weather we have been having in the cities lately. Its so nice out now. This however makes it a challenge to study. Its going to be fun balancing studying with yard work, something I have been looking forward to for a long time. I now finally have the chance to work in our yard. I am hoping to get a lot of yard work and studying done this weekend.