Love in the time of cholera.....

or is it Teaching in the time of H1N1?  The season of viruses has started.  While a part of me feels empathetic to parents who cannot take time from work to tend to a sick child; the other part of me is irate that the sick child is in the petri dish I call my classroom spreading who-knows-what to all of us.  Is there no solution to this?We teach students to cover their mouths and noses when they sneeze or cough.  We teach them to throw the used tissue in a waste barrel. We teach them to wash their hands with soap and warm water each time they sneeze, cough, or use a tissue.  And yet, we still catch the viruses. Or at least I do.There is nothing so pathetic as a visibly sick child -- one with running eyes and feverish look -- spending the day with the class because no one can be reached at home.... or at work.  Can we not do better for these kids than this?The flu vaccine is no where to be found at the moment.  Flu clinics - seasonal flu clinics - have been cancelled and not rescheduled.  H1N1? Who knows when the students will be vaccinated?  Most teachers and staff are not considered "high risk"  so there's little hope of getting vaccinated.Think about that for a moment.  The adults in charge of the students wellbeing during the day - students who are recognized as high risk - will go through the next months largely unprotected from the virus prebilled as our next great pandemic.Does any of this make sense?