The "FLU"ent business

Once upon a time, say 100 years ago when the USA was still a racial country, "THEY" said that the day a black man becomes US president, pigs will fly. Well that wasn't completely false either. Exactly 100 days after Obama rule, the swine FLU. Hot mexicans and the mighty US started it. UK followed the trend as a loyal supporter. They reported 50k cases every week. So the world was now witnessing a pandemic and since US was experiencing it, it was a worldwide tragedy :).

So how will the next superpower, the great democracy "INDIA" will stay behind. India also shared the pride and the IT hub of India started reporting the flu cases. 300 cases a week. Whooaaaa. A big number compared to the others. 1 death and pune pressed the panic button. The multiplexes went silent, festivals seized to be the fun, malls went quiet and the ever so buzzing streets witnesses the self declared curfew. Media went frenzy. Every person who sneezed was now a potential swine flu threat. Every sneeze would make the person skip a beat. The atmosphere became scary. Everyone was scared.

Or I should, "THEY" scared everyone and they were very successful. First relief came when the news came out that the normal mask will save from the swine flu. People saw the god is mask. The never ending queues were seen at the medical shops. The mask was available for everyone. First day for rs 5 then 10 then 25 and so on. People never cared for it. Our life is more important than money right....... So the greed grew and it in turn helped the panic situation. now there was not much profit in the normal mask. So came the other news, normal mask helps only for one day. So you have to buy it everyday. Now that made the sense. The sales volumes increased.

But a day came when people thought that everyday buying the mask was not working. The government authorities declared that the normal masks are not of any use. "THEY" again became happy. Now the rush for N95 mask started. This was a "GOOD" mask and quality comes for a cost. So the cost started from 50 and reached 400 faster than the blink of the eye. Everyone was looking like a swine with the new and more protective mask. So the mask industry had its share of profit.

Then came the traditional Ayurveda sector lead by the great baba Ramdev. The solutions included Nilgiri oil, Tulsi, Guduchi and what not. SMS's spread like the wild fire. The NIV denied the story of Nilgiri oil but people were not listening. They just wanted to be safe. So nilgiri oil reached the all time high rates. Spreading SMS's made sure that mobile companies came out of recession faster than they expected. They all started CALL XYXYZ helplines to let people know more about swine flu. All the experts were giving different opinions for different telephone operators. :)

The most benefited sector was the medicine companies. The "TamiFlu" was being looked at as the only life saver in the world. The company shares rose by 18% daily as the sales rose 100% daily. Everyone was buying it and stocking it. Other companies launched Virenza, CureFlu etc. So everybody got their share of profit. So everybody was happy and so was the common man because he was SAVED.

People wonder what is the cure for swine flu. I think it can only end when media gets some hot topic for breaking news and they divert from swine flu. This will allow people to calm down. The mad rushes for testing will reduce to a great extent and the labs will get time to test the vaccine rather than the throat swab samples. The stage is wide open......