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Swine flu alert hits tax office

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Published Date: 15 July 2009
By LAURA CUMMINGS and SUE GYFORD
A TAX office in Sighthill is at the centre of the latest swine flu scare after four workers were struck down with flu-like symptoms.
Three employees at the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) tax office on Bankhead Avenue called in sick last week after suffering from flu-like symptoms. And another worker was sent home with similar symptoms yesterday.

All four have been to their GPs
and have not yet returned to work. A spokesman for the HMRC said: "At the present time, we are unable to confirm if any members of staff have contracted swine flu. However three people who work in the Bankhead office advised us last week of having flu-like symptoms. One member of staff was sent home from work yesterday and has visited the GP."

He added: "Guidance has been issued to managers at all HMRC offices around the UK advising them of what action to take if a member of staff informs them that they have, or suspect they have, contracted swine flu."

Staff at the tax office claimed they had not been informed of the suspected swine flu cases by managers, and only learned of the situation through colleagues.

One employee, who asked not to be named, said: "I was told on Monday by colleagues that there were three suspected cases of swine flu.

"The management have not told us anything – if they know anything they have not shared it with us.

"It was a big surprise but if we're talking about a pandemic then it's inevitable that it is going to spread. I suppose it was only a matter of time."

The Scottish Government last week changed the way it reports on swine flu.

Rather than reporting the number of people confirmed as having swine flu, it published a report on the number of people exhibiting general flu-like symptoms.

The first such report, released on 9 July, said that 17.5 people per 100,000 in the Lothians had consulted their GP with symptoms.

The Scotland-wide rate was 23.6 people per 100,000, which the Scottish Government said was only slightly higher than would be expected at this time of year.

The next update is due to be published today, and is expected to also include an estimate of the proportion of flu patients suffering from the H1N1 virus.





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  • Last Updated: 15 July 2009 10:14 AM
  • Source: Edinburgh Evening News
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Swine Flu
 
1

craig 1874,

15/07/2009 12:26:25
is it swine flu that people has or just normal flu ????
2

alfonsa pedrosa,

embra 15/07/2009 12:46:17
That will be the next excuse the tax office will use.
3

totally indecent,

15/07/2009 13:11:37
Headline should read:

Three people have the cold.
4

ih8hibs,

15/07/2009 13:17:23
A skivers charter if there ever was one
5

Sneakerpimp,

Edinburgh 15/07/2009 13:47:27
"The management have not told us anything – if they know anything they have not shared it with us."

I work there and holy sheet the above statement is true even about work related issues!!! total joke .. can't blame the "swine flu" four for wanting a holiday....
6

Sneakerpimp,

edinburgh 15/07/2009 13:53:29
FYI

In the toilets on my phone as I would be fired for using my mobile in open sight... oh the joy... you may hate the tax office... but not as much as we do!!!
7

IainGlasgow,

15/07/2009 13:57:15
Just don't get the vaccine whatever you do! Go and do a Google search on Jane Burgermeister and Ghislaine Lanctot.

The vaccine is full of cr*p like mercury, formaldehyde and stuff that makes your immune system attack itself.
8

Sneakerpimp,

Edinburgh 15/07/2009 14:32:12
"That will be the green light for the rest of the tax office employees to phone in sick tomorrow, claiming flu like symptoms. If these wasters were not paid for sickness, you can guarantee they would be there all weathers. Take their sick pay off them, and save the tax payer a fortune."

Yes because only folk at the tax office have sickies....???? mmm you seem to be showing signs of swine flu yourself... i hear one of the side affects is stupidness.....
9

Sneakerpimp,

Edinburgh 15/07/2009 15:46:26
#10 - During my life I came across many folk like yourself... many people work to live... unlike you, were work is your life... in todays work place if you are sick a given number of times you are shown the door.... if we were all like you the world would be grey and dull.... I hope your not surfing the web at work!!! might as well stay home if you are ....
10

Sneakerpimp,

Edinburgh 15/07/2009 16:12:00
What a joke.... Bet you can count your friends on one hand... Get a life ... Seriously ... Or do the pills help??
11

Alice in Embraland,

15/07/2009 20:42:56
GT can count his friends on the digits of a quadraplegic.
12

Pimpslayer,

Edinburgh 16/07/2009 17:33:56
#8 What a pitiful excuse for a human being. I cannot believe that anyone would wish people with families and responsiblities to be out of work!!! You may have a problem with people who collect tax - but someone has to do it, dont they?! If you sacked the lot of them, you would pay more tax as there are no jobs out there, that would be a heck of a lot then claiming the dole! If someone gets paid sick leave then it's in the contract that they signed, it's hardly their fault. And I also doubt that civil servants were born with the capabilities to fight off the swine flu virus when the rest of the world hasnt managed it. Traffic wardens and bailiffs probably deserve to catch it too, right? Yes, there will be some who will take sickies as you would get in any walk of life, but have you actually considered the fact that genuine sufferers/suspected cases are advised to stay at home to try and stop it spreading?! It's a pandemic!
13

david hill,

Huddersfield 16/07/2009 20:31:00
The problem is that no one listens including the media. Swine flu if it mutates to something equivalent to the Spanish flu of 1918/1919 (Spanish flu was a swine flu variant) has the same potential to kill humans as it did 90 years ago. The problem is that both swine and avian are constantly mutating into something different. So by the time you have isolated and made a vaccine for the last one, it has changed again and circumvented the old guard and becomes useless. The problem is that this happens all the time and where drugs become irrelevant. The reason, it takes three months to develop an antidote and 6 months to mass produce and distribute it (a logistic nightmare in itself alone) and where on average therefore the vast majority have to wait 9 months for the cure. The problem is that even in slow coach travel times 1918, the Spanish flu which took between 20 and 100 million lives worldwide (there is no authoritive number but where it is estimated between the two), did its deadliest between week 14 and week 26, some 10 weeks at least before the masses would ever receive the drug cure presently. The 1918 killer flu had a very similar circumstance as today, a mild version before the deadly version arrived in the fall of 1918 with a vengeance. The only way that this deadly killer can be stopped therefore, if anyone is listening out there, is through a complete overhaul of modern farming and husbandry methods and to give considerable financial help to those who breed the livestock that we all eat. Basically as a single example, just stop them sleeping with the animals on cold nights in the tropics as this is how the flu virus passes from pig to chicken to man – eventually; and where the pig is the receptive incubator. The philosophy of not letting it happen in the first place. The drugs strategy is futile and it is only a matter of time before the killer strain that will kill literally 100s millions appears. The problem is that the vast profits of drug companies
14

david hill,

Huddersfield 16/07/2009 20:32:37
(cont)

I therefore say lets start now as I have been saying for the past three years and defeat this mass killer like no other by field work and not the futile drugs strategy that will do very little indeed to save lives. For presently we are all fooling ourselves.

If we put only £50 billion into this field work globally ( a small price for the human nightmare and financial melt-down that a global equivalent to Spanish flu would bring),we could eradicate the situation but where this £50 billion will no doubt end up alternatively in the pockets of the large pharmaceutical companies with little effect whatsoever. Get real everyone before it is basically too late and I am not joking – force governments to change their strategies from something that is impotent presently to something that will eradicate the problem at source. Common sense really but where currently no one seems to have any.

Worryingly is the fact that the United States makes only 20 percent of its flu vaccines it uses and Britain makes zero percent of its flu vaccines, as all its flu vaccines are produced abroad. When a killer pandemic happens it will be hard for the producing countries to release any before their own people are serviced. Little known but true (Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota – 16.07.09).

I have been stopped from putting these comments and facts out by the media and no doubt the Guardian with its self interested stance will do likewise. I therefore do not see this being put in print as it may be conceived to hit the bottom-line – Guardian included !

Dr David Hill
15

Snickerdoodle,

Edinburgh 17/07/2009 19:15:14
Just for the lovely GT; If you think people in the tax office have it cushy, you try working there.

It's undoubtedly the most miserable, depressing place I've ever worked. Some bosses are relatively nice, a few are malicious, vicious and take great joy in bullying their staff to the point where I've seen grown, secure women burst into floods of tears. If you complain, you get nowhere, because no-one is interested.

I'm not surprised some have been smart enough to take a few days off.

They could actually have bog standard flu, of course. You never know! ;)


 

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