Bored of Education
The spin machine is whirling dervishly to try to reassure the populace that, should a pandemic occur this fall, that those in charge will be able to handle the situation.
News articles have appeared, reassuring us that the government is acquiring Tamiflu, and will have enough to treat 81 million Americans. But they won’t have that stockpile in place until late 2008. And even if this drug is warehoused, it needs to be in the patient’s hands within 12 to 24 hours of infection. No word has been provided as to how our government plans to do that.
One of the major concerns are our public schools. School officials seem hell bent on finding ways to keep the schools open during a pandemic. They cite the laws mandating a public education for school age children, and seem to forget that schools will be a prime incubator for any influenza outbreak. This virus, H5N1, to date has shown an affinity for children and young adults. To try to keep millions of children in the classroom is, in my opinion, insanity.
This article appeared today in the San Antonio, Tx media. The remarks in Red Italics are mine.
Flu a Big Concern for Schools
LAST UPDATE: 7/21/2006 10:30:42 PM
School officials are worried that the flu could cause some big problems this year.
School hasn't started yet, but school and health leaders are worried a lot of kids and teachers could be calling in sick this year.
Some schools are taking steps to prevent an outbreak of the flu. Local leaders are concerned it could really happen this year.
San Antonio Metropolitan Health District's director, Dr. Fernando Guerra, has spent the last 6 months talking to school leaders about the possibility of a pandemic flu. He says there are certain steps districts need to take to help prevent the spread of the illness.
Closing schools is one, guys.
"You know, tracking their absentee rates, because that gives us a very good clues as to when we might be seeing an outbreak of flu-like illnesses," said Dr. Guerra.
By the time students are calling in sick, it’s too late.
In the event of a pandemic, Metro Health has identified certain schools in each district, where people could go to get vaccines, medicines and even these masks.
Vaccines? What vaccines? There is no currently available vaccine for H5N1. Who are they kidding?
Doctors are reminding parents to tell children to wash their hands and stay home from school if they're sick.
But go to school if you aren’t sick yet. Sure. Flu victims are infectious for 24 to 48 hours before showing symptoms. This gives everyone an opportunity to get sick.
Parents also need to have the required immunizations before school starts.
Once again, no immunizations are available for pandemic flu.
Metro Health and some local districts are also considering holding free or reduced cost flu vaccination clinics in the future.
The far distant future. Years from now. That’s how long before a vaccine is likely to be available. But hey. No worries. Just send your kid to school in a pandemic. You can always have more. Right?
While a pandemic may not occur this year, or next, officials obviously in some places aren't taking this seriously. The death rate for H5 infections, to date, has been over 50%.
Keeping schools open, once the first case of pandemic flu is reported in this country, is incomprhensible to me. But then, I'm not a public official.
Maybe I don't get it.
But if you send you kids to school during an outbreak, they probably will.
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