The entire Fort Worth School District is shutting down!

[Imalittleteapot]

There is only one confirmed case at McClean Middle andd 2 or 3 suspected cases at 2 elementary schools. 80,000 students will be loose for a couple of weeks. What about working parents?

[Buzz Clik]

1. Working parents? They'll be staying home, too.

[MissB]

3. And many of them will make no money.

Sigh.

[madrchsod]

4. and many of them will be fired

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. But some folks here say the economic effects of this are

just a figment of my overactive inmagination

[Imalittleteapot]

10. I've invited

the children of my employees to the office, if necessary. I hope other employers do the same.

[Buzz Clik]

11. That's great and to be admired.

Do take care, however. If this is as nasty a round of influenza as predicted, you wouldn't want your work force being exposed to it by a sick kid.

[Imalittleteapot]

17. Work force is small, only 3,

and these 3 kids are here off and on all week from minutes to hours after school between dance classes and soccer. Sick children are not
allowed.

I am of the opinion that the Swine Flu is much ado about nothing.

[TorchTheWitch]

18. That would defeat the purpose of the schools closing

It just exposes everyone at the office instead of at the schools. The whole point of this is to limit the exposure.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kera/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1500109§ionID=1
Dr. Parker additionally urged parents not to send their children to day care or any venue where groups of children may gather. Dr. Johnson and Dr. Parker both said they realized this measure will cause a hardship, but praised the community spirit of Fort Worth in responding to this crisis.

I realize you're doing this to try and help out parents that need to work, but not only is it defeating the purpose, it may expose others in the office that wouldn't be at such risk of exposure if the kids had remained in school. It isn't just kids from the school that need to be kept from other kids, they need to be kept from groups of all ages of people especially because this virus is hitting people hardest in the 18-50 age range.

[Texasgal]

2. geez.

this is getting out of hand.

[soccermomforobama]

5. It is baffiling that they are closing the entire district.

I feel awful for those parents who are now scrambling for care for their kids. I do not know what the Superintendent and others were thinking. They are in the middle of TAKS also this week. To me, closing the district is a bigger headache than it is worth.

[blaze]

8. To me, closing the district is a bigger headache than it is worth.

But...

but...

What if your child's life was saved because of this?

I don't know.

I think it's a tough call all the way around.

[rainbow4321]

13. The reasoning that they gave is the 2 to 3 day delay in confirming swine case

They've had a few on some campuses test positive for Flu A..but the second step of the test to see if it is swine flu is done when they send the sample off to CDC..and that takes a few days.
I imagine they saw the backlash up in Richardson school district when Canyon Creek school parents went to the media and said they were not notified until the school shut down on Monday when the CDC results were back in..by then all the kids had been in the building a few days and THEN were told to not come to school because it had to be disinfected.
So the Ft Worth district decided to err on the side of caution and shut the whole district down thru "at least May 8th" before getting the CDC results back.

----------
But, yeah, a school district the size of FW shutting down is a huge deal. Will be interesting to see what Dallas does.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. The logic of this is forced quarantine, and disinfecting the schools

I am betting more districts will follow

From a public health perspective it makes sense if it helps short circuit this

From an economic sense it is just a major nightmare

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

9. That is the plan in most states. The economic consequences are severe though as you noted.

[LisaL]

12. I don't get it. It's the flu, not ebola.

Ebola is close to 90% fatal. This flu is nowhere near that.
What gives?

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Breaking cycle of contagion... that is what is going on

from a Public Health it MIGHT make sense (and mexico has seen a significant slowdown in infection)

But the economy will take a hit, down there in major ways by now... here to a point

[KittyWampus]

15. It's called preventing a pandemic. It's done by limiting potential exposure

[LisaL]

16. So what are we supposed to do? Sit at home for months?

[Lisa0825]

19. It's not just "the" flu. It's a different flu.

It could turn out to be nothing, but because it is a type of virus that most of the population has never had contact with, it has the potential to be highly contagious. This is not the same thing as the flu that goes around every winter and that people get routine vaccines for. It has jumped species.

It's really a bet.

Do you hope it's nothing and therefore do nothing, or do you take extreme measures in case it is a pandemic like the Spanish Flu was? Personally, I'd rather take the hit now by being cautious, then deal with the consequences if we do nothing and we were wrong.

Would you bet your life and the lives of those you care about, considering the fact that scientists who know way more about it than you and I are concerned?