I've never been a panicky type. No one's ever accused me of being a hypochondriac, I hate going to the doctor, and I'm not easily scared. (Unless of course, the lights are off and a scary movie trailer comes on during Leno.)
No, I'm more the whistling-in-the-dark type. When the threat is somewhat real, that's when it's time to sing songs and tell jokes and act like everything's fine. Wash your hands, of course, but go abut your business. We're supposed to wash our hands anyway, right?
I was amazed to find out that city schools were closed for two days in Alabama, where there have been no cases of this flu.
We live 5 minutes from the border, there have been 5 cases of H1N1 in our county, and yet my kids are in school, we go to the Y, the grocery store, even the Chic-fil-A playland.
I have been much more vigilant about hand-washing, and one mom in my son's kindergarten greets her son at pick-up time by wiping him down with antibacterial wipes. Even though there's a big bottle of hand sanitizer for everyone to use upon entering the classroom. Another mom kept her son home for a couple of days, but came back today.
I'm just not that worried. As far as I can find out from the CDC and other sources, this flu is really no more dangerous than ordinary seasonal flu. Rather than keep my kids home from school, I think it's more important to make sure they sleep well, eat and drink well, get plenty of juice, water, and vitamins, and stay generally healthy so that if they do catch it, they could recover quickly.
Hmmm, too bad Biden couldn't add that to his advice about staying out of planes and subways. (Maybe he meant that, too.)
With that, I'm off to get some flu-preventing sleep. After I take my vitamin and drink my water, of course. (Can you hear me whistling?)
