Hotelie-On-the-Go

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The recent H1N1 Swine Flu outbreak is giving a whole new meaning to the start-of-school jitters.  I swear within the past few days, I must’ve gotten a solid 20 e-mails telling me to wash my hands, not to smooch sneezing people, etc. etc. (which by the way, I hope would go without saying), and the statistics I’m seeing around Cornell are flat-out scary.

One of the deans for the Hotel School, Steve Carvell, came into my Business Law lecture this past Monday morning and brought up the issue before class began.  Aside from the basic “don’t come to class if you’re sick” speech, he said that there were about 120 cases of “flu-like symptoms” at Cornell at that point.

A day later–291.  Holy crap.

The Cornell Daily Sun did an article on this — H1N1 Invades:  Gannett Diagnoses 291 Students With Flu-Like Illness (http://cornellsun.com/section/news/content/2009/09/08/h1n1-invades-gannett-diagnoses-291-students-flu-illness), and I gotta say…it’s not encouraging.  That’s for sure.  Especially when Gannett is telling students that they should not attend class for one whole week and not even return to classes until 24 hours after their symptoms clear up, I just don’t see it happening.  We’re at Cornell, remember???  I think about 50% of Cornell students would drag themselves to an 8:40am lecture if their leg had been eaten by a rabid animal that same morning.  But I’m reeeaaaaalllllllyyyyy hoping people listen because this H1N1 thing sounds fierce.

So anyone with the Swine “Blues,” please allow yourself to get better.  And wear those facemasks that Gannett gives you.  For everyone else’s sake :/

***P.S.  On the bright side, at least we’re not to the point of quarantining students like Emory U. in Georgia is:  Ga. Students With Swine Flu Sequestered (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPfJgLF7yIY).