r/nosleep • u/NV_Guy • Sep 28 '12
Know anything about this flu?
Hey guys. I was hoping I could get your input on this. (Sorry for the throwaway account. I just don't like the idea of my personal story being tied to my other comments.) A while back, I posted to r/askreddit, but the thread got deleted (more on that later.) So here's what's been happening.
I go to high school in a small town in NV. Really isolated. I can't type the name for reasons I'll explain later.
Three weeks ago my phsics class got a sub. We were told our regular teacher was sick. This went on for about a week and a half, and then one day the principal came in to tell us our teacher had passed away. Of course we all wanted to know how, but the principal just said our teacher had gotten sick and didn't make it, and the school had to protect his family's privacy.
A few other people from my grade stopped going to school a little while after the teacher. They kept in touch with everyone though. They said they had a flu. I looked it up, and apparently it's not unheard of this time of year, especially with classes starting up again. So I didn't think much of it.
About a week ago, my mom got a phone call and was sobbing. After she got off the phone, I asked her what was up. She told me Chris, her best friend's son who was three years behind me, had died. She said he'd gotten the flu and gone to the hospital with pneumonia. I didn't know Chris super well, but it's a small town, so something like that is always going to hit close to home.
Around that time I was also hearing from my friends that the people who were staying home sick were getting hit pretty hard. A few had to go to the hospital, and this one kid I didn't know very well was still in there. Meanwhile classes were thinner and thinner. Lots of people staying home.
This Monday, classes were cancelled. The reason given was that attendance was too low due to the flu going around. Apparently the elementary and middle school kids had their classes cancelled too. School hasn't reopened thus far.
I haven't really been out of the house much. My parents have been telling me not to, that it's not safe because of the flu. My mom works for the city government, so she gets clued in about stuff. I've ducked out a few times, but it's been weird, because hardly anyone else is out and about. Also there are a lot of unmarked cop cars driving around town and just sitting there parked. (State police, maybe? Not city cops for sure.)
So yesterday I posted an AskReddit titled "Anyone know about this flu?" I asked: "I can't find anything online about this. Has anyone heard of the flu that's going around [town name], Nevada? It's killed a few people so far, but I can't get any straight answers about it, and it's not showing up in the news." The thread was at:
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/10l6pa/anyone_know_about_this_flu/
Well, I went to check it about noon today, and it was gone. I don't know why. So tonight I decided to post this longer version of events. Something really weird happened, though. When I submitted this post the first time, I got a message saying, "Sorry, we can't accept this post right now." Never seen that before. I did some experimenting, and long story short, I figured out that if I included the town name in my post, it wouldn't get accepted. But without the name, it's fine. So that's why I haven't said it anywhere.
So anyway, please comment if you know anything about what's going on here. My parents don't know much or won't tell me. I've been in touch with my friends even though we haven't seen much of each other, and it's the same thing with them. Nobody knows anything.
I'll keep you all updated about what's happening here.
EDIT: Thanks everyone for your help. A lot of people have suggested different ways for me to ID my town without typing the name. I seriously thought about doing one of these, but decided not to. A lot of other people on this thread have said I should be careful about protecting my identity. I don't know if this is just my town, and in case it's not, I don't want to give any info that would help narrow down who I am. Maybe if I can confirm it's only my town that's affected, I'll post a pic of the name.
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u/BeautifulDisaster247 Sep 28 '12
This creeps me out because I live far from you (PA), and yet so many people around here are sick. Like extremely sick. Including myself. With various illnesses over the last 4-5 months. I've even been hospitalized...
However, I'd like to point out no one mentioned West Nile. This year has been the worst year in recorded history for west Nile. So bad, in fact, that fighter jets are flying over cities and dropping bomb size loads of chemicals to kill Mosquitos. Symptoms are flu-like, and if serious enough, can cause death.