Two of the scouts in our troop fell ill. In swine-flu paranoia, our troop was quarantined and are being sent home early. Instead of taking the two sick children to the local hospital for confirmation of the nature of the illness, the camp isolated them in the health lodge and confirmed our scouts to their camp. I do not know if today’s activities were canceled. I suspect that Noah only gets 1 out of 3 days actually riding a horse, an activity he paid extra for participation. I feel Noah was cheated. Not over the horse but for potentially losing all of today’s activities, for being separated from the rest of the camp unable to dine in the mess hall or participate in the week’s ending ceremonies, for losing all of tomorrow’s activities, and for losing Saturday’s morning. I understand risk management. I understand the need to prevent a flu outbreak. I also understand the importance of living our lives in a non-reactionary, logical way. My initial feelings are this was handled wrongly. I’ll learn more tomorrow.
There is reason for the paranoia. The WHO has declared that the H1N1 virus is "unstoppable" and that every country needs to vaccinate its citizens against the swine flu. Interestingly enough, the WHO is no longer counting individual cases. Anyone need a mask
Update 17 July 2009: The quarantine has been lifted. The temperatures on the two sick children came down which is not typical of h1n1. Those boys went home last night and this morning no one else showed any symptoms. Good call CDB!
Ahhh, the memory that this has spurred – read this if you think that Noah got cheated.
I am now 54 y/o, but 40 years ago I and my brother were in our local BSA troop. In order to attend our 2-week long summertime camping session, we had to spend about 6-8 weeks “hawking and soliciting” candybars – always around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays! Talk about EARNING our way to camp!!
One summer, after only 3-4 days in camp, I developed mild, flu-like symptoms and went to our infirmary. The nurse there informed I and my scoutmaster that I would have to be admitted (quarantined) due to a fever I had developed.
Would you believe that out of the 14-days – which I had busted my hump to EARN the “vacation” – that witch kept me in there for HALF of the session!! The kicker to it is, from the second day on, my temp was no higher than 99.1 – which nurses nowadays don’t even blink at.
Ouch! I feel for you. What in the world would you do in the infirmary for a week?!
For the most part – tryin to convince ANY adult that I was feeling fine and DESERVED to be let out of that witch’s confinement!!
I finally decided that enough was enough and pulled a scam to get myself out. The first time that she left me unattended after that – I took the thermometer out of my mouth and just held it in my armpit until I could hear her coming back.
She had a surprised look on her face as she read the results, and looked about the room asking if I had been eating ice. “No, scouts honor” was my reply.
When I inquired why she had asked she said that now my temperature was below average “a wee bit”.
“Does that mean I still have to stay?” I inquired.
Needless to say that I didn’t waste one second thanking her and BOLTING out the door when she said “No, you can leave”!!