Posted on 08/31/2009 3:22:45 PM PDT by Mr. K
Glen Cove District Students Urged To Have No Skin-On-Skin Contact With Swine Flu Outbreak Looming Parents Told To Provide Kids With Tissues, Hand Sanitizer, Ibuprofen Reporting Jennifer McLogan NEW YORK (CBS) ― Click to enlarge1 of 1 DNA test kits of the the influenza A(H1N1) or Swine Flu virus prepared by PrimerDesign Ltd are displayed at the company laboratory in Southampton on May 2, 2009. Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images
Close
numSlides of totalImages Poll Is Glen Cove going too far in telling its students not to touch each other to fight H1N1? Related Slideshows Celebs Who Lean To The Right 2009 Celebrity Deaths, Jan.-June 2009 Celebrity Deaths, July-Dec. Openly Gay Celebrities Best Picture Blunders The Incredible Megan Fox -- Then & Now Celebrities In Playboy Jennifer Aniston Jessica Simpson: Then & Now Most Dangerous Celebrities In Cyberspace Related StoriesCollege Students Urged To Be Ready For H1N1 (8/28/2009) Swine Flu Infection A Stigma In NYC Schools (8/26/2009) White House: Swine Flu May Sicken Over 1 Million (8/25/2009) Sebelius: Vaccinations Main Swine Flu Defense (8/26/2009) Report: H1N1 'Poses Serious Threat' To Nation (8/24/2009) As students across America prepare to head back to school, officials and parents are bracing for a spike in swine flu cases. With the possibility that nearly 2 million people will be hospitalized, and 90,000 people across the county could die, one Long Island school district is taking no chances and has set into place a new "hands-off" approach to fighting the swine flu.
Chest bumps. High fives. Hugs and handshakes. Glen Cove Middle School students Ali Slaughter and Hannah Seltzer say that's what friends do on the first day of school. But when students in the Nassau community return to school next week, the superintendent will be urging abstinence. Everyone from the tiniest tots to the biggest high school football players will be asked to limit skin-on-skin contact in an attempt to prevent the spread of swine flu when it re-emerges this fall.
"It will [be hard] because you really like your friends and you didn't get to see them," Seltzer tells CBS 2.
Glen Cove high schooler Erica Cohen is on the soccer team, but says she knows even in a game that involves close physical content, she'll have to be as careful as she can be.
"I don't really think it's such a big deal, if you wash your hands after -- I think it's just you really can't avoid it," she says.
Is Glen Cove Going Too Far? Tell Us Your Thoughts On This Story.
Lorena Galo filled out her health form and decided she can't give up hugging. "We're still going to hug either way," she says.
The policy is unorthodox and could be difficult to enforce, but Nassau Health Commissioner Dr. Maria Torroella Carney says it's a good way to educate awareness.
"Many people are trying to think outside of the box, creatively, how to minimize spread of the illness, how to protect others, and I applaud that thinking," she says.
Glen Cove parent Leonard Imperial thinks no touching is an overreaction.
"Unfortunately people get sick with flu and die every year, but I don't think this one is any different or particular that we have to worry about," he says.
But Parent Angela Hamel is already urging her sons follow the new guidelines.
"The high fives, I think just to cut down on transmission, it's probably good idea," she says. "I think it's a good way to prevent."
MORE AT LINK
Ummm... Isn't that a lot like saying 2 million people have NOT gotten sick and 90,000 HAVE NOT died?
So now we are reporting their guesses as to the news?
How many other people think this is a planned future 'emergency' to get us to accept some martial law or forced govt. health care takeover?
I thought the schools banned touching a looooong time ago.
So the kids are going to say, “oooh, don’t touch me you have H1N1,” instead of “ooh, don’t touch me you have cooties?”
The good news is a lot of people are getting sick, but almost no one is dying.
Touching is not allowed, unless the students are homosexuals, at which point it becomes a hate crime to keep them separated. Or ask that they keep their clothes on.
HA! You’re right.....I guess abstinence ONLY works for the Flu (not hardly!)
Preschoolers, kindergartners, not touching. Suuuuuure.
I’d just like to see them keep some of the TEACHERS from touching the students...
“How many other people think this is a planned future ‘emergency’ to get us to accept some martial law or forced govt. health care takeover?”
I have been thinking the same thing for a while now...yet another crisis to carry socialist obamadeathcare over the finish line.
Yeah .... right. And be sure to admonish them that if they get caught picking their nose they will be arrested for reckless endangerment. You just gotta love these government schools.
Parents Told To Provide Kids With Tissues, Hand Sanitizer, Ibuprofen
Don’t know about the school system this was written about, but around here if they catch your kid with Ibuprofen there will be hell to pay.
Another worthless, feel good measure that will not prevent the air-borne contagion, like H1N1.
An awfully lot of people, many of whom I personally know, are not buying this as a CRISIS yet! We were practically forced into getting that Swine Flu Shot in 1976 at the County Court House that year. It made so many of us so Deathly SICK we could barely move for a week. I thought I’d Die before I got over it! Having long since retired, most of us who are fairly Healthy for our age, are honestly afraid this New Flu shot could very well kill us, so I’m NOT alone in my way of thinking. This new H1N1 Flu shot could kill a lot of old people who are happily retired now (IF it is anything like that one was!)Of course, it would sure Cull out the old people; or is that what the W.H. is hoping for? At this point, nobody trusts the Government anymore if they are over a certain age...Are we all just Paranoid, or What??
That’ll make High School Football interesting.
Well, as I understand it, “old people” aren’t on the priority list to get the vaccine anyway — apparently if they’ve been getting flu shots in the past, they already have some immunity to H1N1.
My head is spinning trying to decide what to do here. We have never gotten flu shots (nor have our kids). This year we’re considering the flu mist nasal version for the kids (via the school). With the H1N1, you just can’t seem to find anything straightforward from a trustworthy source (I do not count the current D.C. regime or the CDC as trustworthy)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.