Swine Flu School May Reopen, Some Schools Remain Closed

Photograph of students at Good Shepherd parochial school students in Brooklyn wearing t-shirts reading "Better Safe Than Sick" and "We Support our Principal" by Stephen Chernin/AP

St. Francis Prep, the private school in Queens where many students came down with the swine flu, will reopen on Monday. A group of students had gone to Mexico for spring break and, in turn, infected some of their classmates. NY1 reports that most of the students have recovered or are "close to it"—and the school says its air system has been purified.

However, a few private/parochial schools have closed as a precaution, even though no cases of swine flu have been confirmed there. A student at Good Shepherd parochial school told the Daily News about the fears, "The principal came into our math class and told us not to panic, but someone upstairs had swine flu. One of the girls next to me was saying, 'please God, don't let it be my friend.'" Over at Pace University, the school learned that a student at its Manhattan campus, initially suspected of having swine flu, actually has regular, boring seasonal flu.

There are at last 49 confirmed cases of swine flu in NYC; Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden said that if a million New Yorkers had swine flu, the city is ready, "Within hours, we could stock every hospital in New York City with enough Tamiflu to treat every severely ill patient who came to them." Still, Frieden suggested that the federal government convene a Manhattan Project-type of group to come up with a vaccine faster—right now the CDC says a vaccine won't be ready till fall.

The NY Post takes up Vice President Joe Biden's fear of confined spaces like planes and subways during the swine flu pandemic—the tabloid sent him a letter plus a Metrocard telling him to man up: "If you're so concerned about the health of New Yorkers, do us a favor and cover your mouth before you talk again."