New York SBDC Research Network

H1N1 is everywhere. By now, it is extremely likely that you know someone, or at least know of someone, that has contracted H1N1, or the swine flu. Getting the vaccine is not easy unless you are an individual that can be categorized as high-risk. Businesses are being faced with many decisions about how they should handle H1N1 if (some people might say when) it infects their business. Should managers send employees home that exhibit symptoms? What precautionary measures should be taken to alleviate the impact of the flu? How will employers know that their employee really has the flu and isn't lying to get time off? These and many other questions should be asked before the flu strikes. Below are links to resources on the H1N1 Flu and Small Business Preparedness. Guide - Planning for 2009 H1N1 Influenza: A Preparedness Guide for Small Business from Flu.gov Survey - Harvard School of Public Health National Survey of Businesses - Four-Fifths of Businesses Foresee Severe Problems Maint

Flu information from the US Centers for Disease Control and the NY State Dept of Health The Web 2.0 Guide to Swine Flu from Salon Should You Fear Swine Flu? from About.com."No, but a healthy respect is called for." Apparently, pork producers were peeved that the original appellation was problematic in promoting their product , partially causing the name change. Others were bothered as well. How to Wash Your Hands From the techies at UAlbany: As the Swine Flu story unfolds, we anticipate that scammers and cyber thieves will try to take advantage of the interest in this topic by sending out phishing messages and malicious attachments that purport to contain information and updates about the illness. The US-Computer Emergency Response Team has already issued the first alerts about such messages being circulated. In this case, the message contained a malicious .pdf file called "swine influenza frequently asked questions.pdf."