H1N1 virus

Well, the whole swine flu, H1N1 virus scare, is getting old. A student in the school my boys attend has a confirmed case of the virus. She had been vacationing in Mexico and then became ill. As a result, they have closed the school for over a week. There was no school and Thursday or Friday, and then no school all this coming week. I think, at least given the information from the CDC at this point, that this is overkill. The girl had been in school for a week before falling ill. Since her illness, no other cases have been reported. Her immediate family is not testing positive. I saw her in the shopping mall the day before she was tested, so she was already ill then--should we quarantine the whole shopping mall?

Now we have over 800 kids sitting around for a week without any school. They are having parties, going to movies, bowling, generally spreading their germs around the whole community. Maybe it would be safer to keep them in the school--bring in their toothbrushes and sleeping bags and let them all stay there quarantined together! The parents would like that better.

There are so few cases, and so few fatalities at this point that I don't see the justification for these measures. We have times when 20% of the students are out with some respiratory or gastrointestinal ailment and we don't close school--we let the disease run its course.

Well, I guess a few weeks time will let us know if this was the right move or extreme over-caution.