Gov. Baldacci says to stay home if you feel ill. (Mexico: schools, bill)

[forest beekeeper]

Maine.gov: Government: News

“While there are no confirmed cases of the swine flu in Maine, we are taking precautions to ensure that we can quickly identify and track any outbreak,” Governor Baldacci said. “It’s important to remember that a few simple steps, like washing your hands or staying home if your ill, can make a real difference in helping to stop the spread of the flu.”

The Maine CDC has been working with the U.S. CDC to increase tracking of influenza in Maine, including swine flu, and to make preparations to minimize its impact.

There have been no known cases of swine flu in Maine.

There have been no fatalies in the US associated with swine flu.

The seasonal flu cases in Maine have been decreasing in the past few weeks.

[BacktoNE]

Staying home is the correct thing to do, obviously. But it's very difficult to do if you work for a company that doesn't provide "sick time" pay.

[Maine Writer]

We shouldn't need the governor telling us uncommon sense things. =(

[reloop]

Originally Posted by Maine Writer

We shouldn't need the governor telling us uncommon sense things. =(

Oh so agree with that.

[Casper1212]

What bothers me is that they're so concerned about taking the usual precautions against, in their own words, spreading the flu, when they're reporting no cases in the state and that they're working closely with the CDC. Either they're being overly cautious or there's more than they're telling.

[reloop]

Originally Posted by Casper1212

What bothers me is that they're so concerned about taking the usual precautions against, in their own words, spreading the flu, when they're reporting no cases in the state and that they're working closely with the CDC. Either they're being overly cautious or there's more than they're telling.

Maybe it has something to do with the old saying "Damned if you do, damned if you don't."

It may also have something to do with their not knowing who's traveled to Mexico lately, and with this 'jet-set' society, literally anyone could bring it to Maine at any point in time. People up here often shorten their winter with trips to Cancun - maybe that's where the caution comes into play. I wonder how long (in terms of testing) it takes to confirm it?

[elston]

I'm rather glad the governor is providing cautions to address the danger of pandemic....Sen Collins demanded that the pandemic health measures be removed from the stimulus bill in exchange for her support; between that and the filibuster of the Secretary of Health....we are being caught short and ill prepared for the crises which may confront us.

[Sunday1]

^^Agree with Elston. We don't want public policy officials to over-react nor under-react. As of today, they're damned if they do and damned if they don't when it comes to increasing attention and putting plans in place to react if necessary to a pandemic. Let's cut them some slack.

[Maine Writer]

I didn't say he shouldn't. I said he shouldn't have to. We should have the common sense to stay home if we're sick. OF COURSE the information needs to be out there - more common sense.

[Sunday1]

Ah. Quite right, Writer. Doesn't seem that we have any common sense to spare. Even our school systems discourage sick students from staying home as most receive funding from their state governments according to daily or quarterly attendance numbers. In turn, schools give awards for perfect attendance. Really is counter-productive to healthy classrooms. Same with workforce productivity issues. Corporate cultures reward reliability yet one sick employee infecting an entire office/workforce is counterproductive. A bit upside down - again, in terms of common sense. I never have liked the increasingly common "pay or reward people to keep the seat warm" concept yet we often confuse it with work ethic. I think it's a wide-scale mentality that is definitely void of common sense!