Trudy, I said symptoms strong enough to keep them from coming to work.

H1N1, for the most part, has presented in two ways - either it puts you in the hospital, or it's mild enough that you might mistake it for a cold. And most teachers don't have the luxury of taking sick days for colds.

It doesn't look like there is much contagion before symptomizing.

I seem to recall that the 24 hours before symptoms appear are when you're at your most contagious, at least for H1N1.

Also, students spend much of the day traveling from desk to desk in my school and are seldom more than three feet from each other. Schools also tend to be huggy, hive-fivey places with lots of intimate contact. Trust me on this. 14 years in the classroom.

I think teachers should be immunized primarily for the students protection, not their own. An adult with a strong immune system could easily be a carrier for influenza without experiencing symptoms strong enough to keep them from coming to work.

I don't think it works that way.

Wait, the CDC bit you quoted *does* say that's how it works. Basically, an infected person is contagious for close to a week. If the infected person comes to work even though their symptoms only qualify as "weak," or could be mistaken for cold symptoms, then they can spread the virus.

What baffles me is that daycare workers are considered a high-priority group, but teachers are not. Kids don't suddenly stop wiping their nose on every available surface just because they've hit kindergarten!

H1N1, for the most part, has presented in two ways - either it puts you in the hospital, or it's mild enough that you might mistake it for a cold. And most teachers don't have the luxury of taking sick days for colds.

Yes, but when they do they wash their hands and cover their mouths when they cough and sneeze. I don't think H1N1 is proving to be super-congateous.

And I'm not sure where you're getting your data on the "presented two ways". Is that an impression or is there a study? Because my impression has been otherwise -- healthy people can be good and sick for weeks without going to the hospital.

My co-worker's daughter has H1N1 and I called my OB just to make sure I was okay going into the office since he was still coming into work. She told me that you can only get the virus if you come into direct contact with someone with symptoms. So it was fine for me to go to work. They said to worry if the co-worker has symptoms. FWIW.

Oh, God, Seska, the accent!

That is the only accent I can think of from pretty much ANYWHERE that I find absolutely resolutely unsexy. I mean...there's just nothing hot about a Dudley accent. At all. The hottest bloke or bird on the face of the earth could come stalking sexily out of the surf in a skimpy swimsuit, beads of water sliding down over their toned flesh...but if they opened their mouth and a Dudley accent came out - instant bathos.

Meanwhile, on the subject of cute kids, have you all seen this 3 year old girl explaining Star Wars? Proto-Buffista? God, she SLAYS me.

I don't think H1N1 is proving to be super-congateous.

Um. It's HUGELY contagious. That's why all the worry currently (not [just] in b.org, but everywhere) about the lack of vaccine.

And I'm not sure where you're getting your data on the "presented two ways". Is that an impression or is there a study?

It's not possible to conduct a study on the presentation of a novel virus type, which this version of H1N1 is. I *just* edited a big article about it over the weekend, so I *do* actually know what I'm talking about.

I can explain why it's not possible to conduct a study on a new virus, or you can trust me when I say that it's just not possible.

However, I tend to take the word of the thousands of healthcare workers who have described their patients with H1N1.

Wait, the CDC bit you quoted *does* say that's how it works. Basically, an infected person is contagious for close to a week. If the infected person comes to work despite having *strong* symptoms, then they can spread the virus.

BEFORE symptomizing? It looks to me like its a DAY before symptoms and then 5-7 after. And then only with symptoms. So the fear of typhoid teacher walking around thinking s/he's healthy and spreading the flu seems like an unlikely scenario.