Least Delicious Halloween Treat: H1N1 Virus
As trick-or-treating time looms, we'd like to take this opportunity to remind you: BOO!!! SWINE FLU!
Yes, a parade of small children passing over your porch just might be an opportunity for germs to spread.
CBS News wants you to know that grubby little hands reaching into your candy bowl may not be such a great idea. Use a scoop. Or a ladle.
[G]erms can live for up to 48 hours on a surface and even longer if the surface is wet, so it's important to avoid reaching into the bowl for candy. She said a great alternative is a scoop.
Also, discourage children (and, heck, adults) from sharing masks.
H1N1 & Halloween: How to Keep Kids Safe [CBS News]
(Photo: chrisstreeter)
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Comments:
Great...a scoop. As if kids weren't grabby enough. Way back when I did trick or treating, taking a double-handful was considered rude. These days you're lucky if they don't try for another go.
I have to hand candy out myself or I would run out after the first couple of rounds. Now this year I imagine I can expect snowshovels.
@WiglyWorm must cease and decist: re: your last paragraph, that's also what the CDC says essentially. :)
@Sheogorath: How about barbeque tongs? You know, the really long ones. That way you can tweeze out a single piece of candy each and drop it into the kids' baskets while keeping yourself at a safe distance.
@WiglyWorm must cease and decist:I also work in a hospital, but not in a direct patient care capacity. I ended up catching the swine flu, about a week after having my shot for it. In talking with the doctor, he says the swine flu is actually easier to catch than the regular flu and that's part of the media frenzy with it.
What's interesting to me, if you go look it up H1N1 is a designator for the most common Influenza A subtype. That includes swine origin, and seasonal. See: [en.wikipedia.org]
Some strains of H1N1 are endemic in humans and cause a [...]large fraction of all seasonal influenza. H1N1 strains caused roughly half of all human flu infections in 2006.[1] Other strains of H1N1 are endemic in pigs (swine influenza) and in birds (avian influenza).
@LastVigilante:
I was thinking some sort of small air cannon. Then I could sit on the roof and shoot candy at passing children.
It's a win-win situation. I get to shoot my neighbors bratty kids, they get candy. Everybody's happy.
I guess I don't really understand this suggestion. The person giving out the candy is the only one touching the scoop, right? Or else the scoop handle would be the contaminated part instead of the actual bowl. How is that any different from the person giving out candy just dropping the candy in each bag instead of letting the kids reach into the bowl? Unless the person giving out candy already has H1N1. In which case, just turn off your light and keep the candy for yourself this year.
@Kuchen: Typically, you don't eat the scoop.
Seriously though, I think the idea was for the homeowner to use the scoop, and no, I don't see the difference between that and the person just handing the candy out themselves.
Many more people die from the regular flu.
Wash your hands and have a good time.
As someone currently sidelined by a severe cold/mild flu (pretty sure it's not H1N1) I'm pretty sure kids have a ton of other diseases to worry about in addition. Hopefully kids are vaccinated by now though. I have a friend who made sure to get her child vaccinated before Halloween. They waited in line for an hour with a ton of other kids. Hopefully no one will get sick from what is supposed to be a night of fun and candy.
I've always handed out candy instead of letting kids reach into the bowl. Otherwise you would run out of candy in half an hour.
Isn't all the candy wrapped anyway? We wouldn't allow our kids to eat unwrapped candy.
This year we're giving out Petri dishes and syringes.
@Paladin656: I heard that a while back too - that this strain of flu is basically a subtype of regular old seasonal flu. Also, initial reports from Mexico were that it killed several people who were outside of the normal flu risk group - i.e. normal healthy middle aged adults. So everyone got worried that this bug was going to kill a large swath of the population. Then later it came out that, in fact, the "low risk group" members it killed in Mexico were actually in the high risk group due to other conditions.
So bleh to it all. I'm taking normal precautions.
@Sheogorath: Back when I lived in semi-rural Mississippi, I only participated in one Halloween. My only visitors were a teen mother with her small herd of kids (maybe they were just cousins, but I'm doubtful). The kids all tried to take double or triple handfuls, then the mother asked for the bowl--so she could dump the entire thing in her own bag.
The next 2 Halloweens I just turned off my lights. Mayube I'm just mean, but I didn't feel the desire to give my candy to the teen mothers who still thought they should get more candy than their crotchfruit.
@pecan 3.14159265: Without question but on that basis one should never touch a door knob, pick up the handle for a gasoline fillup, or go to the movies, sporting events, theater, etc. This isn't plague we're facing here. You're right in the caution should be exercised, but I think it's more common sense than anything else.
@H3ion: Sure, but most gas-pump handles aren't handled by the wee Petri dishes known as children. Candy in bowls is.
Just got back, and god people need to teach their offspring manners. You had the ones that should be old enough just cutting in front of everybody waiting for candy, and then you had ones old enough to get a job and buy their own candy. Half the kinds did not say think you, and most were running in the middle of the road.
Damn I need a beer, lol.
Best pumpkin carving ever!!!
@H3ion: Our candy is untouched by human hands, both before and after eating.
Is this where I or someone else is supposed to post that they make all their candy at home?
It's 8:30 here in the East and we have had a total of zero trick or treaters come to the door. Now maybe that's because they know we're serving haggis, but there has to be at least one Scotsman in the neighborhood.
Seriously, what do you do with the leftover candy that you're not supposed to be eating?
I read somewhere that your privy parts were cleaner (in a germ sense) than hands or mouth.
...I'm trying to work this factiod into this topic without getting a Halloween visit from Chris Hanson. Unsuccessfully. So I'll just stop here.
@Snaptastic: Yikes -I wonder how many people thought that my 17 year old daughter was taking her three year old son trick-or-treating today while, in actuality, he's just her brother!
I am disturbed at the apparent cheapness of my fellow posters. Holloween, of all holidays, should bring out the generosity in all of us...screw Thanksgiving, Christmas...
As cheap a bastard as I am, I gave out only full size candy bars of the good stuff (Snickers, Twix, Milky Way) and encouraged the little brats to take 2! Last year I gave out the full size bags of the real gummi bears. If I run out, each kid gets a 2-dollar bill or one or two of those gold-toned dollar coins. I even enjoy the teenagers holding onto this last bit of glory with being a child and having the guts to trick-or-treat with no costume.
@pecan 3.14159265: I have access to the vaccine as I am in a high-risk group (under age 24). However, I'm afraid of catching H1N1 from the sick people in the waiting room when I go to the campus clinic to get the shot. What a catch-22.
We live in an apartment building that has requested that kids do not go trick-or-treating in the hallways. I got a small bag of candy in case some came anyway, but nobody's showed up, so I guess I get to eat it all.
@Snaptastic: Um, if she's a teenager, even if she started having kids right after puberty it's highly unlikely that a "small herd" could all be hers.
But she did give you an excuse to turn your lights off, so it's all good.
@csparks: My parents tell me that when I was a baby, it was the custom to hand out candy to the kids, and "a little drop" to the parents. Go, the '60s!
Most of the kids who have been coming so far have been good about taking a couple. The ones who are trying to grab handfuls are, surprise, grade-school boys of the sort who in a few years will think it's funny to trip littler kids on the playground. When they're grownups they'll probably be posting "I have no sympathy for the OP" all over Consumerist.
@wvFrugan: I dunno man... if you're gonna come and take my candy, you can at least have the decency to put on a costume. Even if it's a pair of ill fitting pants and a kerchief on a stick thrown together as a last minute hobo costume.
Work for it, people.
@locura79: We actually had the opposite problem tonight. We had a lot of candy to give away, but when I just put the bowl out there, kids would only take one or two pieces. I took charge and would throw a handful in there instead.
We went out with our kids, unfortunately got a late start, but at 7:45 people were dumping 2-3 handfuls of candy in the bags saying "Here, it is almost the end of the night, and I still have a bunch of candy. You take it, I don't want it.
I am going to start late every year from now on, visit 10 houses and you are done. No more running around the neighborhood for 2 hours for me!
Those houses that did not dole out 2-3 handfuls handed the bowl to the kids and let them pick what they wanted.
I think that Halloween is a dying holiday. I remember when I was a kid, my parents would buy big 4 bags of candy and we would always run out in the first hour and a half. My dad would take us home after an hour, and mom would go through the candy, picking out things that I didn't like and "recycle" them. Almost every house had their lights on and was giving out candy. These days, I have hit a jackpot when I find 3 houses on a street that have their lights on.
@pecan 3.14159265: My kids have not been vaccinated yet (grade school), and neither have mom or dad (shortage of vaccines). We are right now sticking with good old fashioned hand washing. The schools have stepped up sanitization efforts by having the kids wipe their desks down daily with Clorox sanitizing wipes and Purel before snacks and lunch.
Based on the fact that none of the kids have come down with even the common cold yet (by now they are usually on their second), it appears to be working. Some people we know have had the flu (confirmed H1N1) and so far it has not been terrible...3 days of feeling like crap, and a couple days to get back on your feet.
We had some pretty good success giving out Federal grants. Show up in a costume...get a contract to build a bridge. Seems fair to me.
One kid dressed up as AIG. I shot him before I realized he was supposed to be from Manchester United.
@H3ion: I bet the springs would give it that perfect salty-sweet taste when you bite down.
Maybe use the batteries for some home-made chocolate pumpkins?
@Rachacha: Well you know, going to these houses of STRANGERS? And walking in the STREET? And these sugary snacks? Not for these parents' precious little snowflake! No, they'll be staying on the sidewalks and only visiting TRUSTED houses, only eating their whole grain organic soy and granola snacks after a healthy bathing in Purel, I mean, really, there are GERMS out there.
Stop kissing chickens. That is all. ;)
No trick or treat-ers whatsoever...wtf!?!
@floraposte: Did I mention my frequent cross-country-gas-pump-handle-licking trips?
Pretty soon, I'll have to head South to avoid sub-freezing metal.
Anyway, we have so few trick-r-treaters that I prefer to pour candy into the bags.
(I don't lick any of the wrapped candy, btw, Robert Poste's Child)
@DerangedRoleModel: Nothing says TRICK OR TREAT like a belt-fed, fully automatic, 700 round per minute Tootsie Roll cannon.
I work for a hospital (in the IT department, but I still interface with Dr.s and Nurses a lot). Our recomendation is 4 hours.
That said... try keeping your tot away from candy for any ammount of time after trick or treating, lol.
Now, as myself and not as a representative of anything other than myself, the swine flu is just the flu from a different source. Sure, people have died from it, but people die from every flu. People with preexisting respiratory conditions. Be safe, but don't go nuts over it.