reply to post by ashamedtobehuman
You are correct in that there isn't really much difference in the overall level of activity. If someone weren't going out trick or treating tonight
they would be doing something else.
The point that is being made here is that the types of activity involved with Halloween are more liable to spread H1N1 or any disease in general. A
person who stays at home on a Saturday night is less liable to spread or catch a pathogen, but one who goes out and comes into contact with multiple
surfaces which are touched by up to thousands of other people without being cleaned (I'm thinking of a bar at the present time) are introducing
themselves to a higher risk of infection. Not to mention if one kid sneezes, uses his hand to cover it, then reaches later into a bowl of candy, then
the next kid will get Kid A's germs.
H1N1 has proven to be weak as far as being able to sicken and kill people as compared to other "pandemic" pathogens, but its virulence, or ability
to spread is something to not underestimate, engineered or not.