County School System

[Kokowam]

Since the H1N1 virus, people have been crying about how schools had to close over the feeble swine flu. Due to this, my county's resolved to use edline.net (a site to check grades, assignments, class calendars, etc. Well, not really etc. That's about it) to solve this problem; whenever we have school canceled, they plan to use edline to give out assignments and whatnot.

THIS MEANS NO ACTUAL "SNOWDAYS" ANYMORE

[Irock]

Haha, sucks to be moo.

[JFloyd]

People are still worried about that? I haven't heard about it for like...five months now.

[Roph]

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=swine_flu

[Kokowam]

People are still worried about that? I haven't heard about it for like...five months now.

Exactly.

[Moss.]

Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, PA, had an outbreak last month. Hit 100 people. I don't know if any died, though, but that's just down the street from where I am.

[Esmeralda]

Swine flu just hit our country majorly. Five months ago I hadn't even heard of any flu.

[Grafikal]

The problem isn't "OH GOD YOU'RE GOING TO DIE" it's just that when it hits, it spreads fast so a shit ton of people have normal flu symptoms and therefore have to call off work or be absent from school for a while. OBVIOUSLY if you go to school when you have the flu a shit ton more kids are going to get it causing everyone to be sick and be absent, so why not just keep them from going to school for a little bit and not sick at the same time. Wah. I'm tired of people bitching about this.

[Kokowam]

Wow, smart idea. I wonder how the hundreds of counties in the country haven't thought about that. Keep the sick kids out, make them do the work online that they'd normally have everyone do, everyone else is fine.

Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, PA, had an outbreak last month. Hit 100 people. I don't know if any died, though, but that's just down the street from where I am.

Trees don't get swine flu so I'm pretty sure you'll be fine. Of course, melons shouldn't get flus, too...

[Grafikal]

Wow, smart idea. I wonder how the hundreds of counties in the country haven't thought about that. Keep the sick kids out, make them do the work online that they'd normally have everyone do, everyone else is fine.

They're still doing it, except they actually have to BE somewhere. You can just stay in your bed.

[thechromeninja]

Isn't funny how they said pigs would fly before we have a black president...Then swine flu...

[Grafikal]

Stop boosting your posts. You're stupid. ~and not funny

[Zylos]

Isn't funny how they said pigs would fly before we have a black president...Then swine flu...

Old joke that's not even yours. I remember it being told on the radio ages ago.

[EvilM00s]

So, yeah... in case you cared, the CDC projects thst this flu season, about 1/3 of the US population will contract the H1N1 virus. Of those, 1/3 will die from it's complications. The highest risk groups are the edlerly and the very young, with "special consideration" given to health care workers and emergency response personnel. I don't know what "special consideration" means in this case, but it concerns me, because I fall into that group. Ain't gettin' any younger, either...

[Grafikal]

The deathcount, or whatever someone wants to call it, is only going to be high because it spreads much faster than the normal flu so much more people will have it. Like for instance, if 9 people had the normal flu and 1/3 of them die, that's 3 dead. With the swine flu it spreads 3 times faster (let's just say 3 times for the example), that's 27 people with the flu. Normal flu symptoms, nothing different, just there's more people. The deathrate stays constant so 1/3 will die. So 9 people are gone with the swineflu. (All this is just for example) But the point is, more people have it so it's more noticeable.

[EvilM00s]

It seems you hit the nail on the head, grafikal. I just looked it up on wikipedia which linked me to several health sites, including the WHO. It appears that most fatalities, like seasonal flu, have to do with secondary pneumonia infection- something smokers may be interested to know.

It also appears, also like you said, that the concern is over its virulence rather than the symptoms.

[Kokowam]

Yeah, but it's still more people. :\ It's not too good of a thing to fall into the whole "a single death is a tragedy, but multiple deaths are a statistic" thing.

[Grafikal]

I didn't say it wasn't bad. I was saying, that's the only reason why people care. Exactly because no one cares if one person dies from the normal flu but if 2 people die from the swineflu, it's a big deal.

[EvilM00s]

And that is the public fear factor. Or, in my own liberal mind, "the media is making a big deal of it, I should too."

[Miss Nile]

School here has been postponed because of the swine flu as well. I do feel that people are making a big deal out of nothing but then again, in my country it has reached almost 600 patients and 2 of them died. But I don't care, meh...

[Jules]

I understand being careful, but this is ridiculous..

Friday Amanda came home from school early with a fever and "swine-flu like" symptoms.  How they determined these symptoms were swine-flu-like and not just flu like is beyond me.  But regardless she was sent home.  What concerns me isn't her flu-like symptoms, but the panic that goes along with this.

Here is what happened:

Friday they had a dance at school, the first of the entire school year.  Since this was the first, they held it during the lunch periods and also held a dance competition outside.  The temperatures outside reached 84°F/ 29°C, she was in the sun dancing in the competition.  They did this dance called "crazy legs"  Which is basically moving your legs only in a circle.  She did this for about 10 min or so and then continued to dance with her friends.  She skipped lunch and was not drinking because she wanted to dance.  A recipe for disaster, no?  She started feeling dizzy and weak, her legs were trembling and her face was bright red.  She asked to go to the nurse because she wasn't feeling well.

When the teacher took her arm she immediately became alarmed.  "You're hot all over"  And when she got to the nurses office she immediately took her temperature.  It was 101.1(F)  So she immediately called me to pick her up and sent home a letter telling me she had swine-flu like symptoms and possibly needed to see the doctor.  My 13-year-old daughter tried to explain all that I have told you to the nurse.  That she was over heated, she hadn't eat or drank enough, and all of these symptoms could be explained because of that.  Did the nurse listen?  No.

Amanda came home, camped out on the couch for a few minutes, drank some water, and cooled down.  Within 30 minutes she was well enough to play on her computer.  If the nurse had not panicked at her symptoms, had taken a few minutes to rehydrate her and let her cool down, she could have finished the day.  Sheesh, people, I know you have to be careful, but calm down.  Not everything is swine flu.

[Miss Nile]

O.o That is really ridiculous, LadyJules. Seriously, people are over worrying. People should make sure of something before making a big bad deal out of it. 

[EvilM00s]

Trust an  RN  to  do   a  thorough assessment...