Here’s your afternoon don’t-freak-out-but-the-swine-flu-is-spreading update: City authorities are now saying that the disease may have expanded outside of St. Francis Prep and into two additional schools. Twelve autistic students from P.S. 177 in Queens are being treated for high fevers, though nobody has tested positive for swine flu so far. Same story for six students at the Ascension School on the Upper West Side — high fevers, no confirmed cases. But like yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg and health commissioner Thomas Friedan are urging calm, pointing out that tens of thousands of New Yorkers get the flu every year. Still, this quote from Friedan sounds like something out of a bad zombie movie: “Yes, it is here and it is spreading. We do not know that it will continue to spread, and we don’t know whether it’s worse.” [City Room/NYT]
