Transcript: Janet Olszewski: It's important every year to get a seasonal influenza shot but it's particulary important this year because, in addition to the seasonal influenza, we have the Novel H1N1 virus circulating in our country and in our state at this point in time.

And you want to protect yourself against seasonal influenza so that number one, you don't get sick with that. Number two, that you don't get sick with both. And number three, that the two viruses don't combine and form yet another different variety. So it's very important to get the seasonal influenza shot.

The flu shot is going to be available through a variety of locations. I would suggest people first call their doctor's office and see if their doctor will be administering flu shots and get information from the doctor, if they are not doing it, where they might suggest. We know local health departments are going to be providing flu shots. That's always a good place to check in and see if they are doing clinics or whether they will be administering, whether they can administer vaccine to you or community health centers. Rural health clinics and also some retail pharmacies in the community are participating as well.

Michael Flanagan: The main thing that schools need to do is it's all about prevention this year. If kids wash their hands, if they stay home when they aren't feeling well, for at least that week, and staff members need to do the same. We have a lot of dedicated teachers but these teachers need to stay at home if they're sick. The prevention is really what's going to make a difference.

We want kids to continue to learn. So I think what's really going to happen is if we do the prevention right, this isn't going to get to any kind of numbers that's going to be a problem enough for schools to close so that's why we keep emphasizing prevention. That's going to be a local district decision ultimately but we're recommending that it's only a last resort if there's large numbers of kids.

Janet Olszewski: There's several things people can do to help themselves stay healthy this flu season. The first is to get their flu shot, and so they should get their seasonal flu shot as early as possible. The vaccine is now available in the state.

Two, certainly they can wash their hands, wash their hands, wash their hands. I'm sure people are getting tired of hearing us say that, but it's a very good way of preventing the spread of the virus so wash your hands.

If you are coughing, cough into your sleeve as been demonstrated many times.

And of course if you really feel sick, stay home or if you have family members or other friends who are sick, encourage them to stay home so that they don't infect others.

Michael Flanagan: Well if a child's sick, they basically should stay home for about a week and then I think the advice from the medical professionals is 24 hours after the temperature goes down - and that's without Advil or anything like that.

In terms of the learning, if it's about a week, if the kids are sick, they are going to have some trouble reading and learning anyway. But maybe towards the end of that time, well most schools now put their work up on the Internet. I think they are preparing right now to have communication with parents so that they can tell them which chapters to read for example if it's that kind of assignment. But the main thing we want them to do is to rest and get healthy and come back. In worse case scenario is we're pretty prepared to help kids catch up.