The point of vaccinating healthcare workers is, primarily, not to protect them from getting sick. It is to prevent them from inadvertantly passing the flu onto an immunocompromized patient. The same logic ought to apply to anyone in close contact with a high-risk population.

I'd think that keeping healthcare workers healthy during an epidemic would be a pretty high priority. Unlike babies, old people, young people, immune-compromised people, pregnant people, and teachers, if enough doctors and nurses get sick and can't work for weeks (or forever) societies ability to fight the illness is in danger.

That's a really interesting question. We do have massive Tamiflu centres here, handing out pills to anyone with enough symptoms to be likely to have H1N1. The government's being criticised for this policy - which clearly has some major drawbacks and is a colossal waste of money - but it is potentially saving lives, too. I was so ill before I got hold of Tamiflu, I can see how I might have developed serious complications without it. (But I'm in a high-risk group.)

In short: do you need to waste buckets of money to keep people from getting critically ill? Or is there a better system somewhere in between?

My understanding is that the US's tight-fisted Tamiflu guidelines are to try and prevent the flus from becoming drug-resistant.

Teppy! Come here! Is the UK policy different because their population is smaller and denser? Or are they operating on a different philosophy.

I thought I had heard that penguin story before. It's still awesome. What kid woudnt want a penguin of their own?

Teppy! Come here! Is the UK policy different because their population is smaller and denser? Or are they operating on a different philosophy.

That one, I don't know. It's possible that they CAN operate on a different philosophy BECAUSE their population is smaller and denser.

Sigh. Emeline is turning into *that* kid.

Just got a call from her teacher. After yesterday's debacle with the lunchbox, she was sent to school with a brown paper bag. I even took her in early so that she could apologize to her teacher and the little girl who got the lunchbox caught in her hair.

Today at lunch, she decided to take another kid's lunch box, whack them upside the head with it, and then stick her tongue out and call other kids names.

When confronted with her behavior and given the option of a) calling mommy or b) going to the principal's office, she chose b.

So, I will be heading home early to be there when she gets off the bus so there can be a loooong family discussion about this behavior and how unacceptable it is. I forsee a horrible night at home.

Utter Parenting Fail.

t bangs head on desk

It's possible that they CAN operate on a different philosophy BECAUSE their population is smaller and denser.

Or possibly that this is yet another way that SOCIALIZED MEDICINE WILL BE THE DEATH OF US ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Utter Parenting Fail.

Utter Parenting Fail would be if you declared the other kids, the teacher, the principal, and the like whiny bitches and told them "kids will be kids".

Aw, man, sorry Em is...doing stuff, Aims. She's never going to get to the princess that way!

Aims, do you think we'd get more money off eBay if we auctioned off Em and Dylan as a set?

Because this is the conversation I had on our way home from daycare yesterday:

Dylan: I want [something - don't remember, don't care]
Me: No Dylan, that's not allowed.
Dylan: YES [THING I WANT BUT CAN'T HAVE, PROBABLY SOMETHING LIKE I WANT TO PICK UP THOSE SHARP ROCKS AND THROW THEM INTO THE STREET]!!!!!!!
Me: Dylan, no, that's not allowed.
Dylan: <repeats above only much much louder>
Me: Dylan, I'm not going to argue with you any more.
Dylan: YES ARGUE WITH YOU ANYMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE!!!!!

And so on.

I'm thinking we should use the word "spirited" somewhere in the description field.

And if the Dudley Zoo has noticably faulty enclosures...urban legend and true are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Half of the surviving buildings, built between 1935 and 1937, are still used for animals - and include the bear ravine, polar bear pit and birdhouse. But many were later deemed unsuitable on welfare grounds and were demolished or converted.

Police are hunting a three-year-old crocodile that was bundled into a sack and stolen from Dudley Zoo. West Midlands Police said the 2kg West African dwarf crocodile was taken by thieves from the Castle Hill site. Officers said the offenders, thought to be a gang of children, broke through three doors to reach the reptile house before putting the crocodile in a sack.

Three youngsters have been arrested after [Dudley] zoo was broken into and a baby wallaby kicked to death

Dudley Zoo said keepers were delighted that the marsupials had been recovered after they were spotted playing with youngsters near a travellers' camp in Oldbury, West Midlands.

ijs - my friend is FROM Dudley, and in terms of prevarication she's pretty much Cordelia, with a Brummy accent. And all of the above articles kind of suggest that Dudley Zoo is a tad less than perfectly efficient at protecting their animals.

Utter Parenting Fail

Nah, you'll set her straight and explain how she's going down the path of evil step-sister rather than charming princess.