Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, students and teachers! Button up, drink orange juice, and squirt sanitizer into your hands because the Swine Flu has arrived.

The H1N1 virus, more commonly known as the Swine Flu, seems to be making quite a statement in newspapers and newscasts since its first appearance in the United States in early April. This influenza was usually found in pigs before it mutated and became infectious to humans, who have little or no immunity to it.

The virus spreads like the regular seasonal flu, but much more rapidly and easily. Like the regular influenza type A virus, it is spread by coughing and sneezing, and then touching an object that has those germs.

It has spread rapidly at Thompkins Middle School; where, at one point, the absentee rate has reached 20.8% within two days, as reported in the Evansville Courier and Press.