Does Closing Schools Stop Swine Flu?

Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they are re-examining whether closing schools is an effective way to halt swine flu -- especially if students at a school are infected by someone in the larger community and the outbreak is not as lethal as initially feared.

Richard Besser, CDC's acting chief, said that the agency would re-evaluate school closing recommendations, adding that he would keep in mind his own experience as a parent and a pediatrician that kids were often best off at school.

Meanwhile, in news from the This-Was-Only-A-Matter-Of-Time Department, an Alabama lawyer filed a lawsuit to have his kids excused from school through the third week of May, citing the risk that children could contract swine flu from classmates. A judge refused, and ruled that the parents of the kids could withdraw their children from school and have them home schooled or enrolled in a private school.