within the breathing zoneof a sick person, which is about three to six feet, Schaffner said. And we usually mean being this close to someone in a confined space. We 're not talking about fleeting contact. We 're not talking about walking past someone in the street. You need sustained contact. If you think you might have sustained contact with someone who's ill, read this guidance from the CDC's Web site. 7. Yikes ! Every day I 'm that close to countless people -- at work, on the bus, at church, in a movie theater. Could I get swine flu from them ? Yes. If you 're standing next to someone on a bus, or sitting next to someone or in front of someone in a theater, you could acquire the infection in that fashion, Schaffner said. That's why people with the symptoms of any kind of flu -- fever, diarrhea, body aches, vomiting, etc. -- are urged to stay home and away from groups of people. 8. Was n't there a vaccine at one time ? Is there one now ? Yes, a swine flu vaccine was given to 45 million people in 1976. There is no vaccine now, although researchers are working on one. The 1976 vaccine would n't be helpful anyway, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy & Infectious Diseases. That was a completely different virus than the virus we are dealing with right now, completely different in the sense that the genes are different, and it does n't