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Swine Flu Kills Queens School Official; First in New York State - NYTimes.com
Mr. Wiener had a history of medical problems that may have put him at greater risk...
His wife, Bonnie, a reading teacher, blamed the city for failing to act sooner to close the school where she and her husband both worked. “I know we have a duty to educate the children of New York,” Ms. Wiener, who is not sick, said on Friday. But, she added, “something just doesn’t fit right.”
Several former students of Mr. Wiener’s gathered outside I.S. 238 on Sunday to remember him. They left flowers and candles on the steps and wrote “RIP Mr. Wiener” in black marker on the door.
“He knew every kid’s name” said Byron Lopez, 32, a former student who is now a commercial real estate appraiser. He recalled his teacher’s constant refrain: “Get to class, Byron. You’re going to be late.” He said he had stayed close to his teacher since leaving the school after eighth grade.
Mr. Lopez still lives in the neighborhood, where he said many people believed the city waited too long to close the school.
Dr. Frieden said Sunday that city officials did not expect to stop the flu from spreading at this point. But he said that the school closings and the warnings to people with underlying health conditions were an attempt to keep people from getting seriously ill, as Mr. Wiener had.
“At this point our goal is not to stop the spread of flu, because that’s like stopping the tide from coming in or going out,” Dr. Frieden said. “We have been concerned by the emergence of a novel virus, and for people with underlying conditions, it’s very important to get treated promptly.”
On Friday, Dr. Frieden was named by President Obama to head the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he will have to make critical decisions about how to deal with the spread of the disease. He starts in June. He has urged the federal government to mount a Manhattan Project-type effort to develop a vaccine.
One of Mr. Wiener’s three sons, Adam, said about an hour after his death that the family was too devastated to talk. “Out of respect to my family, not right now,” Adam Wiener said. “We can’t talk about this right now.”
