I am faced with an interesting dilemma. Yesterday, my son (8th grader) called me from the lunch room to say that there were two confirmed cases of H1N1 at his school. Please come with me over the fold and tell me what you would do if you got this call from your child.
He was scared--saying that although the teachers were telling everyone to wipe down their desks, use hand sanitizers, etc.--the vibe was loose that kids were getting sick. Every cough, spittle, and doorknob had become ominous. I went online to see what the school had to say, and there was a notice that although there were two confirmed cases of H1N1 in the school, they would not close the school because the NCDC advises that schools stay open unless H1N1 becomes "widespread." So I told my son that he should just stay put, and try to relax. He responded by saying, "So you want me to stay in an environment with a potentially deadly virus?" My son has anxiety issues, and generally they are of the irrational sort--but I could not dismiss his fears this time as completely irrational. I do know that many people are contracting this flu and coming out the other end just sidelined for a week or so. However, others are dying.
What to do? I really don't know what to do. It seems wrong to keep him home. It seems wrong to send him to a place where he could contract H1N1. Today, when I contacted the school, they told me 40 students were out sick, although they couldn't tell me that they had any more H1N1 confirmations. Apparently the diagnosis takes 7 days, and some parents weren't even attempting an official diagnosis, just treating it like another flu.
I hate that I don't know what the responsible thing is. I don't want to be a hysteric, but let's think: Do you send you child into a school where students have been diagnosed with H1N1, telling him now to worry? That he probably won't get sick from H1N1, but if he does, he probably won't die? Tell him that he needs to concentrate on his algebra test? What would you do?