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29 April 2009
This Flu Thing Is Getting Serious→[More:] In the last day and a half, the school district went from first diagnosed case of swine flue to closing schools in that neighborhood to closing ALL schools.
My son goes to a different district; they're still open. I bet they will close the following day.
Jesus. We've got our pandemic plan pulled out at work but since we're geographically isolated, we get to stay open for a little while longer if the main campus closes, but we switch to purely online-only delivery.
Here in the lab, we were finally given instructions on handling patients who might have it. We have already had several positive influenza A screens sent to the state for further testing.
A friend of mine is a personal assistant to a crazy woman, and the woman made my friend stay home from work today (paid!) because she thought my friend, who was feeling sick earlier in the week but feels fine now, might have swine flu.
I love that this hit just as my allergies are getting bad. Every time I sneeze people jump away.
posted by kellydamnit
I know what you mean lol... I have seasonal allergies and I was wondering if people at the grocery store would freak out if I went shopping with watery eyes and a sniffly nose.
The two confirmed cases in Kansas are in my area, so I think we're all feeling a little weirded out. Even though most of the people I know aren't the kind to panic or blow things out of proportion, it's hard not to be a little skittish.
I don't see the problem with it. It's bad that a few people are going to die, but I've not seen any evidence that the numbers are going to be anything more than die from the flu every year anyway.
Don't most people report "mild symptoms" which get better after a day or two? It seems extreme and a bit early to be handing out anti-viral medicines to school children.
I'm flying out to the US in a couple of weeks and people at work are already saying "are you still going?" There've been, what, less than 100 cases in the US, in a country of 300 million.
I think I'm far more likely to get killed by a taxi in NYC than by swine flu.
Also, I remember all the previous times over the past 25 years or so when we were told we were ALL GOING TO DIE ... DIE, I TELL YOU!! of SARS, bird flu, ebola, necrotising fasciitis, lassa fever ...
On the other hand, it really annoys me when people don't go home sick from work. We have 3 people in my office who are constantly coughing. I don't think they have swine flu but jeez, no one wants to listen to that, and no one wants to catch that. We do have good benefits - paid time off + excellent insurance - so I don't know what is up with these people. IF someone did get swine flu, it'd spread like wildfire in our office because people refuse to stay the f--- home.
desjardins--we are basically ordered to go home if anyone starts to get sniffly in our office, moreso when there's something going around. (In our pandemic plan, if we get sniffly, we are required to stay home (paid, woo!) because we are such a small department that if we all get sick, we have to shut down completely.)
A boss I know has been impossibly rude and abusive to a woman in the office on bedrest in the late stages of her pregnancy. Routinely yells at people their first few hours back in the office after taking off sick and swore at a staffer who called in with strep throat in the contagious stages to say she wasn't coming to work. It's not uncommon in small offices for staff and lower-level employees to take abuse for taking sick leave, even when they are demonstrably unwell.
When many people have to chose between taking a sick day and losing their jobs, it's no wonder people who are ill don't stay home. One of the million things wrong with the way we do things around here.
My sister is part of the first responder plan in our fair state. I think she should write me a note to work from home until flu season passes every year.
What amro said. It's really fun when all you get is six sick days per year, you're prone to migraines, can't afford to take a day off without pay and get shit for it when you do. Fine, just call me Typhoid Deborah.
Oh yeah. I was out with a sick kid for something like three weeks during one awful summer, and it came up on my evaluation as something that would need to be "aggressively addressed".
We have a pandemic flu plan, and there have been meetings. The plan made a lot of inaccurate assumptions, so it's being considered with a lot of common sense. There are cases in Maine, and there's a direct link between the people who are sick and a co-worker, which is just an example of how very small a world we live in.
The news is on full hysteria mode. The store is out of hand sanitizer, which I was going to get for the office. A lot of individuals are being very sensible, but if it really spreads, I do have concerns that people will get quite nutty. To The Barricades!
Oh, and one nice thing about where I work is that sick days are no big deal, if you're sick. If you need a mental health day, a vacation day is expected.
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