My son's former Assistant Principal died of swine flu last night. First death in NYC.

[HamdenRice]

I feel like I'm at ground zero. I've driven past the parochial school here in Queens where the flu seems to have started, when a group of kids came back from spring break in Mexico.

In my mental map of Queens, it seems like it is spreading north into Flushing, west into Elmhurst and Corona, and south into Queens Village and Hollis.

There are now a half dozen or so schools closed and hundreds of cases in Queens.

My son graduated from the now closed IS 238 several years ago, but he knew "Mr. Wiener", Mitchell Wiener, the assistant principal for math who died last night.

Mr. Wiener was a very committed teacher, community pillar and family man.

RIP, Mr. Wiener.

[aquart]

1. My junior high is closed, as is my sister's.

Marie Curie and Nathaniel Hawthorne. It's spreading rapidly because we have no antibodies to a new virus, but so far just that one serious case. This could be a valuable innoculation if enough get the virus while it's this benign.

Meantime people are sick all over the country but we don't know if they all have this flu. My sister was in terrible pain the other day in San Diego so she has flu, but this one?

[HamdenRice]

6. Are you a jhs teacher?

Or is this your kid's school?

[aquart]

17. Neither. It's where I grew up. It's where my mother lives.

It's where I've been back and forth to visit and shop four times this month. Do you think the parents of the sick kids avoid the supermarkets? The LIRR?

I'm expecting to hear it's spread to the Colbert Report. The wife of their sound technician is a teacher in a closed school, and she's already sick.

[shadowknows69]

2. We've had some confirmed cases as far north as Onondaga county

And there were stories about some possibles in Oswego Cty and Lewis Cty. but I haven't seen much since then. They're on the NY City story now though.

My mother is 70 years old and a teacher and I constantly worry about her. You can't help but be exposed to anything brought into your classroom.

[Iris]

3. A co-worker just told me about this.

I'm sorry to hear this.

[bananas]

4. He was getting an experimental treatment

Hemo-Modulator uses UV beams to treat flu victim
By Brendan Brosh & Rich Schapiro
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Sunday, May 17th 2009, 4:00 AM

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* Wife of swine flu victim 'outraged' at city

Mitchell Wiener is being treated with an experimental device designed to stimulate a flu victim's immune system using ultraviolet beams, relatives said Saturday.

Called a Hemo-Modulator, the washing machine-sized device exposes infected blood to a precise amount of ultraviolet rays, rendering the pathogens inactive.

The treated blood - now acting as a vaccine - is then reinserted into the victim, triggering the immune system.

"We're trying to treat his blood with some light and trying to stimulate his immune system," said Tom Petrie, of Energex Systems, a New Jersey-based firm that created the technology. "We did some experiments with H1N1 and had some success."

Petrie said Wiener, 55, has undergone the 30-minute treatment twice so far at Flushing Hospital - Friday night and again Saturday.

Wiener's condition has improved slightly, Petrie said.

[HamdenRice]

5. I suspect he had some other condition

All the local news reports keep suggesting that he had a pre-existing condition that made him vulnerable.

Your cite shows that they were trying to stimulate his immune system.

[aquart]

14. Yes, there are very few hospitalizations for this bug.

So far it's not really killing but it is extending its reach. Nobody has a shot for it or natural resistance so we have to expect that the people WITH pre-existing conditions or extreme youth or old age, which covers pretty much everyone I love, WILL start to die of it in the normal flu death numbers so triumphantly reported here as nothing to be upset about.

YEAH, THOSE NUMBERS ARE SOMETHING TO BE UPSET ABOUT. It is spreading so rapidly in Queens there is less and less chance to avoid exposure. It hasn't hit the colleges yet. When it does, it will take over the city. Those kids travel to class from all over the area.

[malaise]

7. Too sad

:cry:

Can't believe how it's spreading in New York.

[HamdenRice]

8. It seems like the story isn't getting out despite the fact NYC is a media center

It's happening in the outer boroughs -- which sometimes is like flyover country -- and out here, it's spreading like wild fire.

Fortunately, it seems to not be a very bad strain of the flu.

[aquart]

16. I kind of like the idea of rapid spread while it's not a killer.

Could give some protection if it suddenly decides to get fancy.

[aquart]

15. New bug, no resistance.

Did our government not say, 'DON'T GO TO MEXICO FOR SPRING BREAK'??? Did the geniuses at St. Francis go to Mexico for spring break? Why, yes, they did.

Of course, our gov't was merely trying to keep us out of the drug wars, BUT HAD THEY HEEDED THE WARNING....

[Catherine Vincent]

9. Poor guy

The H1N1 virus is still out there. Here in Houston, 12 cases have been confirmed today and the school is still closed. I hope it gets better for us.

[FourScore]

10. This is so sad.

I feel so bad for his family.

I am in Ithaca, so not all too far away. I am also one of the few to still have grave concerns about the swine flu.

Google Vitamin D and flu. Stay healthy HamdenRice.

[HamdenRice]

12. Shit! Another Queens resident has died of swine flu

16 month old in Elmhurst, Queens.

[FourScore]

13. I read today that 7 people have now died in the US.

Is that true? 16 month old. That is so sad. :cry:

[aquart]

18. But that's still normal flu death demo.

Children under two, the elderly, pre-existing conditions. It's not doing to us what it did in Mexico.

[Cha]

11. That's really sad..

Poor thing..I hope no one else has to get that sick.

[HamdenRice]

19. Crap! My cousin was in the hospital for 1 week with swine flu!

My sister called yesterday to tell my cousin in Brooklyn, who I haven't seen in about a year, was in the hospital for a week with swine flu. Relatives say he was really, really sick and got dehydrated, went to the ER and they kept him there for a week. Young healthy guy.

The good news (sort of) is that further analysis shows that the 16 month old in Elmhurst, Queens did not die of swine flu.

[FourScore]

20. In many ways, it may be better to get the swine flu now rather than in the fall.

If this flu follows the pattern of the 1918 swine flu -- which was also mild initially in the spring and summer months, then very deadly in it's fall and winter waves -- then it would be better to get it now so as to build antibodies.

Vitamin D.

How is your cousin now?