There are a lot of false rumors and misconceptions about the H1N1, Mexican, or "swine flu". 1 - It is NOT entirely "new". It has some cross-reactivity with the 1957 seasonal flu strain, so adults who were alive in 1957 are likely to have milder cases. There are many strains of flu and they mix together and rearrange every year so that one component of one strain may combine with another component of another strain making a "new" mix. That is why vaccines from previous years will not work on the "new" mix. When other animal strains (bird or swine) flu mix with the human strain to form a "new" mix, then they usually are too wimpy to cross species and infect humans. If they are strong, they may cross from animal to human. Then they can be very nasty like the 1918 "Spanish" flu IF THEY sustain their strength. However, most cross-species strains quickly become wimpy after one or two passages from human to human. Then they die off fairly quickly and only cause mild illness. It is too soon to say which way this "new" mix of H1N1 will go - strong and nasty or mild and wimpy, but the early signs are that as it passes from human to human its becoming wimpier. Almost all illness in countries outside of Mexico so far has been mild. 2 - It appears to be weakening, which is not unexpected as it has components of flu virus from several species and often this causes a flu virus to become more wimpy with each human to human passage. The one death in the U.S. of a 2 year old in Texas should not cause panic. The little girl had severe chronic medical problems and therefore was in a more risky group. 3 - You should NOT run to a doctor if you have "fever and cold symptoms". Influenza causes high fever (102-104 in adults and 103-106 in children). Parents of children who have febrile seizures should make sure to give fever reducing medications. Those who take fever reducing medications may have a longer illness of five days instead of 3-4 as fever helps you fight the infection. If you are very healthy, you might want to let the illness run its course. If you run to the ER or the clinic you will just pass it to others. I suggest you call your doctor or clinic and ask what to do. If you are able to drink fluids well, have no difficulty breathing, do not have severe vomiting and diarrhea, are not dizzy when standing up, then they may call in a prescription over the phone for Tamiflu and ask you NOT to come to the clinic. If you call them, then they can quickly move you away from other patients and give you a mask when you enter the ER or clinic to avoid spread to others. These precautions should be taken with ANY flu virus as they are all highly contagious every year. 4 - If the use of Tamiflu or Relenza is widespread, it may cause the virus to become resistent to the anti-viral medications and in the future when components of this virus make a new mix of a nastier virus, we may end up not having a drug to treat it. I think that it is unwise for the government and healthcare workers to be pushing treatment for a mild strain of flu. Wise people will just let it run its course without treatment, stay at home for a week, drink plenty of fluids, and be vigilant about calling their doctors if any signs of not improving or worsening occur. Those with chronic illness, the young and very old however should be treated. If your fever last more than 5 days, you are getting worse rather than better, you can't keep fluids down or keep hydrated due to vomiting and/or diarrhea, you are very dizzy when standing up, or you are having difficulty breathing you should immediately call the clinic or ER and ask to be seen quickly. You may be getting complications such as bacterial pneumonia or other bacterial infections or the disease may be progressing to viral pneumonia, etc. I don't believe we should be closing ANY schools as long as the illness is mild. Its better for the population to build up immunity to this new strain as soon as possible. I would rather the majority of people at a school get sick at the same time and miss one week of school instead of causing the kids and teachers to miss school every other week in waves as the kids come back, another kid gets sick, and they close school again. Closing schools I believe is simply going to cause our students to miss a lot more school than if the officials let the kids get sick and get over it en mass. "Sanitizing" the school is stupid and a waste of effort. The virus is fragile and cannot live on surfaces for more than a few hours to a day. One the school is closed for a day the school surfaces and "building" are safe and can't cause the flu.