Flu on you

Both Owen and Will have classmates in preschool who are currently suffering from the flu, so we’re crossing our fingers and waiting to get sick. We got flu shots last Thursday for the seasonal flu, in accordance with our pediatrician’s recommendations, but that may do us little good for the swine flu which seems to be hitting Georgia in pretty full force right now (even if the cases are milder than the normal flu). According to the CDC, 97 percent of influenza A cases being reported now are H1N1 (or swine flu) viruses.

On Friday I reminded Will about the importance of sneezing into your elbow and I told him one of the main ways people give the flu to someone else is by sneezing on them. Then Will had an utterly selfish moment of flawed ingenuity. “Well,” he said. “If I get the flu I’m just going to sneeze on somebody else and give it to them.”

I explained that giving the flu to someone doesn’t cure you of it yourself, not to mention the fact that it’s not nice to intentionally infect your friends and family. But I have to admit I kind of liked the idea of just getting the flu for a moment and then sneezing it right back out of your body for good.