Exposing yourself to flu is a bad idea

You'd have to be feverish to think it's a good idea to get the flu on purpose - and you'd have to be demented to deliberately expose a child.

Yet that's what some dimwits are doing - hosting "swine flu parties" to get themselves and their poor kids exposed to the H1N1 illness in the outrageously mistaken belief that getting sick now will help reduce the risk of getting even sicker later on.

And that's just sick, period.

It's hard to believe that any sane person would even consider this, but apparently some people are worried that the swine flu might turn into something like the Spanish flu of 1918, when a mild spring illness was followed by a deadly outbreak the next winter.

Check the papers - about the only thing they're good for is an accurate date, and any one of them will tell you it's not 1918. And I'll tell you right now that swine flu isn't the Spanish flu.

Anyone who gets sick on purpose is missing the point, and maybe even part of their brain. Your goal should be to avoid illness, period. And you can do that by taking preventative measures such as washing your hands, wearing a mask and building up your immune system with vitamins, not vaccinations.

You know how I feel about the panic surrounding this illness - when all is said and done, the swine flu won't be nearly as bad as they're telling you. It'll be forgotten - the "pandemic" that never panned out.

But while this sickness has been relatively mild so far, it's still the flu - and it's beyond irresponsible to spread it intentionally.

At best, you're setting yourself and your child up for a few days or even a week or so of sniffling, sneezing misery. At worst, you could get hit with any of a number of flu complications - including the risk of death.

It's one thing to refuse to give in to fear. It's quite another to refuse common sense.