The start of Reading Week means the end of the Spectator. But not the end of the world! With finals looming and storm clouds brewing, what will we talk about to lift our spirits? Duh. Swine flu.

In Mexico the spread is slowing, the restaurants are reopening, and everyone’s sneezing into their sleeves.

Is the need for a UK flu leaflet campaign encouraging? No. Is the cover of the UK flu leaflet hilarious? You decide.

China doesn’t discriminate against Mexicans. It quarantines everybody.

Self-medication won’t help, unless it’s the suddenly super popular Tamiflu.

The hell with your swine flu, it’s Cinco de Mayo!

Columbia (or at least the Butler computer lab staff) has deployed the giant sanitary bottles!

“Mexican” flu stands no chance. 

- Photo by AMP

News that swine flu may be “linked” to a TC student has put Columbia’s email systems in overdrive, as administrators have made various “community-wide” announcements about the flu. Executive VP for Student and Administrative Services Jeff Scott announced yesterday to faculty and staff that “Currently, there are no changes to University operations or activities based on these public health recommendations.” Students will be receiving a similar email from Health Services Assistant VP Samuel Seward later today, which will also include prevention tips.

UPDATE 8:05pm: Seward has officially issued the long awaited second email with a number of ingenious tips for keeping yourself swine flu free, like washing your hands, washing things your hands touch, and using a tissue instead of your sleeve. Full updated email with all the anti-sick tips you could ever want after the jump.

On the Barnard side of Broadway, Barnard Health Services has sent an email to all students outlining the symptoms of swine flu (“Runny nose, sneezing, fever, cough, sore throat, headache, body aches, occasionally vomiting and/or diarrhea”). Barnard’s email was all over the health tips in the first place – it suggests, along with more standard health tips, that you “avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth,” which sounds like a great party game.

As for the original possible case, TC Vice-Provost Iriada Torres told Bwog, “Unfortunately, we have no additional information regarding the type of influenza the student was infected with but we have been told that the student is recovering nicely.” Finally, earlier today President Barack Obama said that schools with confirmed or suspected cases should “strongly consider temporarily closing,” which we think is a great idea. Full Columbia and Barnard statements after the jump.

- JCD & CEE Read more…

The porcine pathogen may have arrived in Morningside: in an email to all Teachers College students, TC President Susan Fuhrman wrote, “late yesterday afternoon we received a response from a TC student to our communitywide email on swine flu. The student was diagnosed this past Sunday with Type A Influenza, which has been linked to swine flu.  We have been and will continue to be in touch with the student.”

As for locations, “the student informed us that he was here on campus Thursday, Friday and Saturday and that he used computer labs on the third floor of Macy and on the second floor of Horace Mann. He also mentioned that he was in the first floor of the library as well as Zankel Hall.” TC administrators have decided that, because of the limited amount of time that the virus can live outside the body, sanitizing these areas “would have extremely low health utility and would be unnecessarily disruptive to our students during this busy time of the year.”

That doesn’t mean it’s the particular subtype of swine flu that’s causing everyone to freak out on Twitter. According to Wikipedia, “the new strain of influenza involved in the 2009 swine flu outbreak is a reassortment of several strains of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 that are, separately, endemic in humans and in swine.”  Influenza A is the supertype of all the swine flu-like subtypes, as far as we can tell.

Commence mass hysteria, but only after reading why this whole epidemic may not actually be that serious. Full email after the jump.

UPDATE (5:29 p.m.): Great news! City Room reports that one of two possible new outbreaks of swine flu is at Ascension School, at 108th between Amsterdam and Broadway. City Room also ominously notes that city officials do not know how swine flu could have made it to the school.

- JCD & AB Read more…