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My Story 2009 H1N1 Pandemic
It was late in Q1 of my son’s kindergarten school year. There were just a few days left until our 17 day Fall Break. Suddenly, the Kinder classroom across the hall had 21 of 24 students out with the flu. Yikes! Break starts and my son gets sick. 1/
It was late in Q1 of my son’s kindergarten school year. There were just a few days left until our 17 day Fall Break. Suddenly, the Kinder classroom across the hall had 21 of 24 students out with the flu. Yikes! Break starts and my son gets sick. 1/
He tests positive for H1N1 and spends the next 8 days of break in bed. Because this is wave 2, within a few weeks the H1N1 vaccine is widely released and everyone in my family gets the H1N1 booster in addition to the regular flu shot we all got in early September. 2/
Fall Break and an available vaccine had broken the huge outbreak of H1N1 in the school community and Q2 is a short semester. But, it wasn’t gone. Pockets of flu continued to flourish and spread. 3/
Next spring, I substitute taught nearly every day of Q3. It was a rough spring. Classrooms that were hit with flu had nearly half of their students out sick. I frequently subbed for the remaining children in 2 combined classrooms. I subbed nearly all 5-7th grades that spring. 4/
At one point, I asked the students who were still in class if any of them had received the flu shot. Virtually every hand went up.
There are a couple of things I learned during the H1N1 Pandemic: 5/
There are a couple of things I learned during the H1N1 Pandemic: 5/
1) Children are superspreaders, even among children old enough to understand how germs spread.
2) Even healthy teachers with great immune systems get sick under constant exposure.
3) Time away from the classroom helps break the virus cycle. 6/
2) Even healthy teachers with great immune systems get sick under constant exposure.
3) Time away from the classroom helps break the virus cycle. 6/
4) Vaccines help, but only those who get them.
5) When several children get sick, the whole class gets behind academically because so much time is spent reteaching. 7/
5) When several children get sick, the whole class gets behind academically because so much time is spent reteaching. 7/
In 2011, I started teaching specials full time. Each class would rotate thru my room every quarter, 1400 kids each semester. Classrooms get outbreaks of head lice, pink eye, & a variety of communicable diseases. Sometimes it takes weeks & major interventions to break cycle. 8/
Every week, someone in the early primary grades sneezed in my face at close range. They sneezed on their classmates. During my three years teaching full time, I had a low grade, feverless cold for several weeks, lost my voice for more than a month, and 9/
I contracted a superbug that hospitalized me for a week and put me on IV antibiotics for 24 days. Fortunately, I got the infection right before that 17 day, cycle breaking Fall Break. 10/
What is your take away from my story? @DougDucey @Supt_Hoffman @arizona_sos
Here’s mine: #ReopeningSchools is dangerous. #MaskUpAZ #Covid_19 is not H1N1, it is much worse. Return in person #WhenItIsSafe. #NotMyChild and protect their #teacher. 11/
Here’s mine: #ReopeningSchools is dangerous. #MaskUpAZ #Covid_19 is not H1N1, it is much worse. Return in person #WhenItIsSafe. #NotMyChild and protect their #teacher. 11/
