Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum The H1N1 Exception

Morodiene, I agree, and that's why I posted the llnks.

Barb860, sorry to hear about the deaths and the paralysis victims, very tragic, and this is one of the reasons why I posted the 2 links above.

As I mentioned before, it would NOT hurt to have one's VitD3 levels checked, not only for the flu, but for a host of other reasons explained here: www.vitamindcouncil.org

We have huge numbers out around here, our local school's latest number is 7%.
I have not changed my policies, although it is clear parents expect me to.

One mom said to me "why can't I get a credit on my bill? He was sick with H1N1, not just the flu".

I have to stick with it, I have beeen burned too many times. "give an inch...." Word gets out and suddenly everyone has it. I know it sounds terrible, but it has happened through the years.

I try to make up the lessons whenever possible, but when I don't get notice early enough, I can't get a child to fill that spot for a make-up. Most parents understand and those are the ones that get dibs on the first open spots for make-ups. I think it was Gary that once said he will bend over backwards to help the families that treat him well. That's how it goes with me too.

The paralysis is most likely a scary but temporary problem...

Guillian Barr

Beware of anyone selling you something, newspapers or alternatives to proven medical treatments. The CBS article is yellow journalism at it's finest. The reason the tests were stopped was because they were extremely expensive, and most state health departments cannot afford to continue testing. They also had no effect on actual patient treatment, because they take days to get results.

Both a lack of infrastructure(hey, who wants to pay taxes for that! I am saving for a speedboat.) and lack of immediate usefulness is the culprit.

Most tests came back negative, but that is not surprising, since a lot of things cause flu like symptoms, like mom's potato salad. What is surprising is that there should be virtually NO flu during the time that those tests were taken.

Lastly, while routine testing is not done, random sampling IS done, and those reports are available to everyone here:
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/fluactivity.htm

It reports lab results and symptom only reports separately. And anyone with two brain cells to rub together can read the charts and see the lab results include subtype testing.

It's very likely the N1H1 is going to be a lot less severe than previously indicated. The largest group that die from flu, the very old, are mostly immune. But we will see a dramatic increase in younger people getting the flu and dying from it.(compared to previous years)

Vaccines always carry risks, of which Guillain-Barre is one.

Medicine is rarely an either/or proposition. Careful calculations are done with the vaccines.

They think:

If a person takes the vaccine, they'll have a 0.5% chance of a bad reaction, and an 0.02% chance of dying. (I'm making these numbers up.)

If a person doesn't take the vaccine, they'll have a 2% chance of getting the flu, of which 0.3% of dying.

Obviously, taking the vaccine gives you a better chance, but nothing is a sure thing. I pick up some of the literature my wife gets from time to time, and I've noticed that the medical literature is all about percentages. No drug is 100% effective or 100% safe, and doctors are constantly having to weigh the benefits vs. the risks.

I would not want a child of mine to be taking lessons from a teacher who either teaches when he or she is sick or provides his or her students with any incentive (such as no make-ups, no refunds, or any other incentive) to go to a lesson when the student is ill. You can't sterilize the keys between lessons!

Ummm, yes you can, and I do.

All you have to do is have your child wash their hands as soon as they get home. May as well have them wash hands as soon as they get home from school too.

I don't think it is as simple as that. There are plenty of opportunities for germs to be transmitted before the kid gets home to the soap and water!

Look, most of the time kids with diseases are infectious a couple of days PRIOR to even having symptoms. All we can do is have kids cover their coughs and wash hands.

No one is trying to sell me anything, I assure you. I know there's a lot of misinformation out there from all sectors. I don't think it's a matter of testing everyone to see if it's the swine flu or not that is at issue (correct me if I am misunderstanding what you're trying to say). Of course, testing a patient does take time to find out what the problem is, and there's really no treatment for the flu. However, I think it would be very helpful to know if people who are dying from the swine flu are dying from that or from complications with other pre-existing conditions. For the majority of people for whom the swine flu is not deadly, the best immunity is a natural one, as you state with regard to the elderly.

The link, Dr. Mercola's Natural Health Center, is promoting pseudoscience wellness treatments for both people and pets!

The CBS story is also trying to sell newspapers and advertisements.

I agree there is a lot of misinformation from both News Papers selling the extreme danger and the conspiracy theorists who believe "Big Pharma" is conspire to make you unhealthy and has just the thing for $19.99.

While I agree it would be very helpful to know if everyone who died had pre-existing conditions, however, are you willing to accept an increase in taxes to pay for that kind of testing?

The CDC estimates that 45% of people are completely healthy. They don't test everyone for pre-existing conditions, they just do random sampling. While random sampling is not always perfectly accurate, it can be compared to other sampling.

No. I stated that the elderly are immune because they were exposed to swine flu in the 1970s.

The best defense is to get immunized for children and young adults. Older adults, especially those around during the late 1970's are immune and shouldn't bother.

Sorry, that's not correct. Only people born in the early 50s have a slight immunity to this strain. Maybe you're mixing it up with the Hong Kong flu?

I read a nice little history of H1N1 in New Scientist recently:-

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18063-timeline-the-secret-history-of-swine-flu.html?full=true

And if anybody is interested, IMO a great site for up-to-date info is:-

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org

Thanks LaValse for the history of H1N1...very informative. Whether you choose vaccination or not...I think it's important to have someone remind parents to keep their kids away from cigarette smoke.

Think of this huge tobacco industry, and how many adults and kids are exposed to smoke daily. I suspect it is a factor in why some kids succumb to a flu virus that the vast majority have no problem with.

But gathering information in this area is sensitive...who wants to try to find out how much kids are exposed to second hand cigarette (and marajuana) smoke? Parents are likely to get offended and lie anyway. Still, I think this is important information to know. Even if parents refuse to stop smoking around the kids...they perhaps should be targeted for vaccine. Let health officials announce that if you smoke around your child that it affects the child's ability to recover from the flu. Emphasize it, take it seriously. And also target these at risk kids for vaccination. As I mentioned before...I am interested in "the rest of the story".

How about having a real "war on drugs" and begin by banning cigarette sales during flu outbreaks! That would throw people into a tailspin. LOL! But it would also protect the health of many children (IMO).

Got another student out with the flu this week. Does this thing ever end??

All the other students recovered their health, but not their piano playing. They have so much school work to make up, they put piano on the back burner.

I haven't had anyone sick with the specific flu yet, but I'd be willing to say that if it hits all at once, there will be a week or two or up to a month of interrupted lessons.

I would think this puts the student behind in every area of his or her life. They do answer to many masters. And, I think the seriousness of what they experienced in being sick has left them with a lot less energy than they had before. It may take a little recovery time to get back into the full schedule and be producing well in all areas.

I'd be willing to wait that period out because well being and productivity is not something you can demand if there has been an illness that affected all systems of the body and brain.

I'd advise giving the student time to regain their footing before expecting the pace to increase. I would never consider piano lessons as being the "back burner". There is always something constructive that can be done at a lesson.

As a mother, I've had children of my own who were ill with different things - mono, virus, flu, a one month in hospital bed recovery from a broken shoulder, knee injuries, and 2 of my daughters have my weak immune system which means when we get ill it's harder on us, longer in every way and we feel absolutely lousy when sick. One grandchild also inherited this. When you have experience in caring for sick people, you gain a wealth of experience in knowing what recovery periods are like.

I'm sorry you feel this way about your students because it is actually more about your expectations of producing competitively focused students regardless of the circumstances they are facing.

I think giving yourself a temporary break from this agenda for your sick students will make you a more compassionate teacher. Otherwise the picture I am seeing is that it's all about time and effort and proficiency and winning more than it is about the inspiration of having music in their lives. I think we all need some balance in determining what are the best ways to handle certain challenges and interruptions to our ambitions. It serves no purpose to be irate about things like this.

I don't think we were talking about students taking advantage of the situation - we were talking about - when there are serious interruptions to the flow of our aspirations.

I don't think illness and recovery can be hurried.

This is worth reading about H1N1.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...-About-the-Great-Swine-Flu-Pandemic.aspx

I kid you not--one more student out with the flu today!

This past Saturday and Monday, two students had their regularly-scheduled lessons after recovering from the flu. It was an exercise in sight reading.



I have never seen so many kids out sick, and it's still early in the flu season. This is projecting to be a horrible winter.