Sniffling, hacking, running snot- 2018 has started off as a very topsy-turvy year for all things symptomatic. More so than other places, school is the place to be to catch the sneaky bugs that crawl in through grimy hands and noses, laying dormant on bathroom sinks and used pencils just waiting for a kid who forgot their own. Students and staff can’t ever fully get rid of the risk of catching the flu or a cold here at FHN, but there are definitely some surefire ways to reduce the risk of catching days away from class.

The most tried and true method of ensuring you don’t catch the flu is to get vaccinated each and every year. The flu isn’t the same virus every year. It’s one of the most versatile sicknesses out there- making it the most difficult to avoid, too. The flu builds resistance to the drugs in one year’s vaccine, so hospitals and pharmaceutical companies know to change the drugs yearly- which is why you must get a shot for it every new flu season, or else you’ll suffer the consequences- sore muscles, fever, dehydration, loss of appetite- a collection that is so awful, that before vaccines were popular, it caused an influenza pandemic with 50 million deaths in 1918.

The next best thing to avoid sickness in the wintertime, and in any season, is practicing good hygiene. Wash your hands, your hair, your ears- anything and everything that can help your body stay fresh, healthy and sickness-fighting ready. Doctors recommend washing with warm water and the soap of your choice for at least 20 seconds, but people generally seem to know what to do when it comes to using the restroom. They’ve been doing it since they were three or four, after all.

Another good thing to practice, if you do get sick, is to just stay away from students and staff who aren’t sick. Whether it means just taking a day to rest, drink liquids and recuperate, or if you simply have to come into school and there’s no way it can be avoided- practice the personal space bubble. Try to cover your mouth when you cough and try to use hand sanitizer more than you think you should. One of the worst things to go around school is the flu, or anything similar, like the common cold, it causes attendance to decrease significantly. 

All in all, to avoid getting yourself and others sick this flu season, you can do more things than you think to help stop the spread of sickness. Besides washing your hands, getting a flu shot and keeping yourself at home, you could also carry sanitary wipes with you to wash after you touch publicly used things like, sink handles or doorknobs, and even do some light exercise to sweat out toxins in the body. There’s many ways to stay healthy and you should try all of them, but it’s up to you to do them this year to keep your snot where it belongs.