Corrections
The Friday, May 1 article “Student Tested For Swine Flu; Results Aren’t In Yet” incorrectly reported that an MIT student living off-campus had been diagnosed with influenza A and was being tested for swine flu. The error arose because of a confusion between two cases.
A student was seen by MIT Medical on Thursday, April 23 for a respiratory illness and was never tested for influenza. The student’s illness has been labeled a “probable” swine flu case because he had recently returned from Mexico and because the Boston Public Health Commission found connections between the student and some of those with “probable” swine flu infections at the Harvard Dental School, said Howard M. Heller, chief of internal medicine at MIT Medical. Whether the student’s case was swine flu cannot be determined because samples were not taken for testing on April 23.
Separately, an MIT affiliate covered by the MIT health plan, but not faculty or staff, was diagnosed with influenza A on Monday, April 27. The person had no travel or exposure risk, but their case of the flu is being considered a “probable” case of swine flu because their strain of influenza A does not match seasonal influenza strains. The error in Friday’s article, based on information from Heller, arose because of confusion between the two cases.
Because of an editing error, the last two paragraphs of the Tuesday, May 5 opinion piece on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, “Cleverer and Cleverer,” were omitted. The complete version is available online at http://tech.mit.edu/V129/N24/yost.html.
The same piece incorrectly claimed that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently reclassified depleted uranium from Class C waste to Class A waste, which has less rigorous handling requirements. The recent ruling by the NRC actually decided against reclassifying depleted uranium — which is currently Class A waste — to a level with stricter handling requirements.
The March 31 editorial about the Graduate Student Council presidential elections misleadingly stated that Alex Hamilton Chan G “was instrumental in creating the new dental plan for graduate students.” 2008–2009 Housing and Community Affairs Committee (HCA) Co-Chairs Chan and Dacheng Lin G helped implement the plan, but it was Tanguy My Chau G and Robert Yuanbo Wang G, HCA co-chairs in 2007–2008, who formulated the initial plan.
The Tuesday, April 28 article “BC ‘Dance Till You Drop’ Stunt Fizzles Out” misspelled in one place the last name of Tech photographer Eric D. Schmiedl ’09.
The May 1 review of Ben Folds’ performance at MIT’s Spring Weekend concert used the wrong date for the event. It was held on Saturday, April 25, not Friday, April 24.