George Carr didn't want his daughter to return earlier this week to Milford Mill, where she is a senior, because he was afraid she would get sick. She insisted, though, because she wanted to be sure she could graduate on time. Carr said he had been pushing to have the school closed - and cleaned - ever since he found out about the possible case of swine flu. He called elected officials and the state health department, among other people, he said.
"Everybody was assuring me there was no problem, there's no need to close down the school," said Carr, who is president of Milford Mill's PTSA. Now, with the school actually closing, Carr said he won't let the matter rest.
"This shouldn't have happened. I don't want it to happen again," he said. "When they knew there was a problem, they should have closed the school down and disinfected and sanitized - the whole nine yards, like they did in Rockville."
With so much still unknown about the virus, public health officials say they are trying to strike a balance between protecting people from the disease and allowing people to live their lives.
"The argument in favor of closing the schools is to say, 'We don't yet know exactly how severe these cases are going to be,' " said Dr. James Nataro, head of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. There is some evidence, he said, that "if you close schools early in an epidemic, you can really [slow] the spread of the infection."
At the same time, "if you close schools, the large majority of people you're turning out of the schools, they're healthy. Where are they going to go? They may be going to malls" where they might be just as likely to catch the flu as in school.
"Either position at this point - closing or not closing - is a defensible one. We don't know the right answer."
Baltimore Sun reporter Julie Scharper contributed to this article.
information
The toll-free line set up by the state of Maryland, 1-877-633-5848, is open from 9 a.m.-9 p.m Monday through Friday and 9 a.m.-6 p.m on weekends. Questions can also be e-mailed to swineflu@dhmh.state.md.us.
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PGS 8A, 11A
