H1N1 tends to affect younger people more than older people, since many folks over 55 have been exposed to a cousin of the current H1N1 virus back in 1957. Also, this flu isn’t as lethal as many viruses of the recent past, like the bird flu that hit Asia or SARS that hit Canada and China earlier in the decade. That being said, people have died from this bug, including 4 people in Kentucky.

You don’t get swine flu from eating pork products. Pigs and humans have similar cardiovascular systems and thus are prone to the same diseases, but proper cooking will kill off the virus; lunch meats are already cooked, so any bugs they have aren’t generally from the animals providing the meat.

That’s one of the reasons the media has made an effort not to use “swine flu” to describe the virus; while it is suspected that the virus was first transmitted via pigs, it was more likely from live pigs to a farmer, not from eating a ham sandwich or a BLT.

Most of the prevention methods are good for avoiding any bug; wash your hands before eating, keep those hands away from your mouth and nose if they haven’t been washed and keep away from folks if you’re sick. Hand sanitizers like Purell have done a land-office business this year; when H1N1 hit the University of Florida’s football team had, a Kentucky sportswriter christened their head coach Urban “Purell” Meyer.

Face masks can catch coughs and help keep you from infecting others, but they are less effective in keeping yourself from getting infected. A better prevention method that is underused is staying home when you’re sick. We often have the ethic of “playing hurt” and trying to tough-out your illness, but you don’t want other folks to go through H1N1, so stow your inner John Wayne and stay home if you’re sick.

Schools will often close down if the flu hits ; even during a normal flu season, if a school hits a critical mass of absenteeism (10% is often enough), they will close the school for a week. That will be long enough to let everyone who has the flu get over it so it doesn’t spread any further.

For schools, sports can be an issue; sick players are going to be in close proximity to healthy teammates and foes alike. When the flu hit the University of Florida’s football team, ill players, including star quarterback Tim Tebow, flew to their game at Kentucky in separate planes from their healthy teammates.

Getting individuals to stay home when they are sick is an important way to stop the flu from running through a workplace or school. People often are given kudos for toughing it out and coming to work walking-wounded, but not only will they be working at a reduced capacity, they run the risk of getting everyone else infected, possibly forcing the entire business to shut down.

For instance, the flu has hit the crew of the TV show Bones hard enough that producer Hart Hanson tweeted about having to stop production due to the large number of staff out with the flu. Had some of those sick workers stayed home rather than shared their blessings with their co-workers, the show might have gone on.

To this point, we have not seen the radical steps that Mexico did of closing all restaurants and bars during the height of their H1N1 scare. With some 20-20 hindsight, we know that such measures were likely overkill. H1N1 is not as lethal as some viruses of the recent past like the bird flu or SARS ; it seems to be more contagious than other flu but not any more lethal. However, the Mexicans didn’t know that when things first took off and they erred on the side of caution.

Thus, officials have to work on being cautious without being labeled The Boy Who Cried Swine Flu ; finding a workable middle ground is a work in process.