It’s like sitting on the edge of a hurricane watching the winds whip up an offshore frenzy, uncertain where — or even if — the storm will hit.

And whether or not we consider H1N1 a real threat or the product of media madness, it’s central in everyone’s mind, actually changing the way we live and think, and weaving its way into almost every conversation. 

Vaccinate or not? Sanitizer or soap? Stay home or mingle in a crowd? Hugs, handshakes; hype or horror?

Suddenly we are scrutinizing health symptoms like never before — sneezing, coughing, headache . . . is it swine flu? — and fighting our way through a wearisome barrage of conflicting information.

“It’s very strange because we are just sitting here — waiting— with our plan in place,” says Gulf Islands School District superintendent of schools Jeff Hopkins, noting that local school absenteeism is actually low right now: “We don’t have as many sick people as usual.”

Similarly, at Lady Minto Hospital, bold-lettered, yellow signs direct potential flu victims away from the emergency room to an overflow area, which last week sat empty.

The hospital has a multi-stage plan in place, but as of press time Tuesday has only admitted “a few” patients with flu-like symptoms.

“We’re trying not to admit people and infect the whole hospital,” says chief of staff Dr. Shane Barclay. “But I can guarantee I have confirmed cases [of H1N1] in my practice.”  

Having seen swine flu in full swing earlier this month in the North West Territories — where he is medical director for the Fort Simpson area — Barclay knows what is coming.

‘”They were hit first. We are behind, but we will catch up.”

Up north he was seeing four to five flu victims a day out of a population about one-tenth the size of Salt Spring’s. Here, he’s currently treating similar numbers, most of whom are put on Tamiflu antiviral medication and “feel yucky for a few days, but get better.” 

Most businesses on Salt Spring are reporting nothing outside of normal absenteeism  — so far it appears to be a typical flu season, which traditionally starts in late September and peaks sometime from November through January.

“The numbers [of flu patients] should start increasing,” says Lady Minto OR supervisor Dona MacKie, who has been put in charge of swine flu planning.

“Most people who get H1N1 will have a fever and a cold and terrible muscle pain. They will stay in bed for a few days and get better,” she says. “Most will be fine, but it is the unknown that is concerning.”

And it is the unknown that has everyone talking, planning and taking more precautions than usual.

Sales of hand sanitizer has soared at Pharmasave stores locally and across Canada, sparking a national shortage of the product used to make it. Island parents keeping children home from school must report symptoms to school offices. Anyone arriving at Lady Minto with a cough is handed a mask, and people are learning to sneeze into their arms rather than risk spreading germs on their hands.

The media is showing everything from people panicking in vaccination line-ups to polls that indicate only half the population plans to be inoculated.

Trying to wade through all the conflicting information is, again, like looking at that offshore storm that could strike with full force or peter out to nothing.

Should it blindside Salt Spring with its full potential, the effects could be devastating: the hospital is not equipped or staffed to handle severe respiratory symptoms associated with acute cases of swine flu and the difficulty of getting off-island amid a full-blown pandemic would be mammoth. 

Some reports are alarming — a U.S. Centre for Disease Control release indicates flu-related pediatric deaths rates rose 20 per cent last week — while other reports, like one from the Globe and Mail, states, “so far, H1N1 is not proving more deadly than run-of-the-mill flu.”

“I think there has been over-coverage,” says Barclay. “This is not the plague to end the world. Yes, this is a flu and you will feel very unwell. But it is just a flu.”

The facts are: as of Tuesday XXX people worldwide had died of swine flu. In Canada, that amounts to at total of XXXX with XXX of those in B.C. 

Although some people are making comparisons between the current situation and the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-20, Barclay says that is a tricky game to play.

The Spanish flu — also a subtype of H1N1 — infected one third of the world’s population and killed more than 50 million people. Like today’s pandemic, a high proportion of Spanish flu victims were healthy young adults, and not the elderly or health-compromised people usually associated with flu mortality.

But Barclay says it’s hard to make an analogy between the two pandemics because society is so much healthier now.

“We have clean water, we are well nourished and we don’t live in cold, damp accommodations.”

However, he adds, if this strain of H1N1 mutates — its genetic structure changes and the bacteria becomes resistant —”it could be a very different story.”

But in the meantime, back on Salt Spring, all people can do is hunker down, wait, watch the storm build and avoid sneezing into their hands.