It’s a known fact, we really don’t mind missing school. Snowdays are like our holiday presents, and it’s hard to imagine a school year straight through without them. However, there is a possibility that we could be out of school indefinitely, depending on current events. Bird flu, of course, is a strain of influenza which is deadly to birds, and to humans who are in contact with them. There is talk of a mutation of the disease, so that bird flu would become easily communicable through human to human contact. That means the flu could spread like a common cold. Not too fun. A school is a germ ridden place. We share food, bathrooms, and cough and sneeze everywhere. Even the purell we all carry around isn’t guaranteed to kill off bird flu viruses.

Here’s the deal. If the bird flu mutates and migrates to America, or vice versa, we are all at risk. There isn’t nearly enough treatment for a pandemic of it, and the last thing we need is too cooped up with each other in school for five hours a day. Many medical personal affiliated with the government urge schools to plan, just in case we can’t go to school due to an outbreak. So it wouldn’t be all fun and games, but maybe it would.

In today’s world, the first possible option, in my opinion, is internet classes. However, myself being stuck with dial-up at home and one phone like, this isn’t the best idea. Not all of us, amazingly, have internet at all. So that’s out. Another option is phone classes, but this also leaves the phone lines tied up. We could have smaller class sized outside the school at government buildings in town like the library, HHES, WMS, BHS, St. Joe’s, CES, so that people could go to the building closest to home. But it wouldn’t be fair for teachers to have to leave their homes if there is an outbreak.

According to experts and MSNBC, people ages 5 through 18 are the beast carriers for the flu virus. Basically if one of us gets sick, lots of us get sick. In Massachusetts schools, they are thinking of setting up a phone chain to announce homework and reading assignments, so we could get them done at home. This may be a great idea, but that means we would all be storming the school in order to pick up our books. If the occasion arises that there is an outbreak and we would need to get our books, the last thing we need is organized chaos with our heavy textbooks and raiding our lockers. This plan also means that activities planned by the teachers, such as labs, videos, presentations, lectures, and such, cannot be done. This totally messes with the teacher’s lesson plans. Also, many worksheets that we receive are not from our own books. Therefore, the teachers would need to make copies for everyone ahead of time (like now). And if we lose papers, we lose our grade. This would be horrible for testing schedules and quizzes, since we would either not be doing them, or being on the honor system and taking them home.

Many medical personnel claim that in order for the shutdown to work, schools would have to be closed for about a month. This makes sure that contraction and incubation period for the virus are past when we go back to school. It’s not just a two day thing. Obviously, if this happens, we would have school into the summer vacation. For people planning on taking trips or going away to camp, this can become a problem. On the other hand, if the school is shut down, any plans like that would probably be cancelled. Federal health associations claim that it’s not too early to start making these plans, just in case. It’s better than the craziness that would occur at the last second during an epidemic.

We’ve all seen the colds and flus this winter season. It’s a known fact that if you take vitamins, exercise, wash your hands, etc., it lowers the risk of getting sick significantly. The main concern is that the bird flu could become the people flu, and become a pandemic. An epidemic is an outbreak in a fairly confined area. However, a pandemic is an outbreak in the entire world. The state governments are already collecting money for preparations in case of a pandemic. The minimum amount per state is five hundred thousand dollars. That’s not a lot, believe it or not. But it’s a start.

Every state receives a different amount of money, depending on the population. Connecticut will get $1,347,950. In comparison, Rhode Island is getting $761,679, and Texas will receive $5,875,044. This money we get goes to “coordinates pandemic response activities with state, local and tribal public health and health care agencies,” based on a speech by Governor Jodi Rell. This money will also go to give out information about the flu, and to provide for investigative tools used to determine severity and other information about an outbreak. It also provides for some limited vaccination and medication uses, valid in the next six months. However, Connecticut has to provide money for other uses.

We have to make preparedness teams, update national government, and paying for anything that the money we received doesn’t cover. Us, the independent families, need to make sure we have enough food and water that we don’t have to leave the house for awhile in case of a pandemic. A generator, batteries, and other amenities are also recommended. We should practice healthy habits and know about the prevention of the spread of viruses. Think of alternate ways to get where you need to go. Public transportation may be affected, and this may be a huge problem in urban cities. Cats are rumored to help transfer bird flu, and can get it themselves. Watch out for symptoms in your outdoor pets, and keep them inside as much as much as possible.