Individuals of the 2009 Swine Flu Pandemic: Mitchell Wiener

Mitchell Wiener was New York City’s first victim of the 2009 swine flu pandemic. At the time of his death, Wiener was 55, the Assistant Principal of I.S. 238 (a public school in Queens), a father of 3 sons, and was deeply invested in the students attending his school. Family members said Wiener had previously suffered from gout and taken medication for it, something officials claimed may have been a complication in his reaction to swine flu. Wiener had been in a Queens hospital for five days, in the Intensive Care Unit for much of it, before his death.

Mitchell Wiener

His school, I.S. 238, was closed three days after he was hospitalized as fear of the pandemic increased and more children were absent. Following Wiener’s death the city closed more schools in Queens and neighboring boroughs for as many as five days in some cases.

The then mayor, Michael Bloomberg, said Wiener had been “a well-liked and devoted educator, and his death is a loss for our schools and our city.” He was also called “the truest kind of educational leader, unsung, but absolutely dedicated to his students, his teachers, and fellow administrators” by the president of the principal’s union.

Wiener first began working at I.S. 238 as a math teacher in 1978. Previously, he had been a substitute teacher for 6 months. In 1992, he became the assistant principal. Students said “he knew every kid’s name” and was always available to help them.¹

Wiener’s son Adam said “people should remember my father for what he did, and not for the hysteria going on outside” because his dad was “larger than life.”²

What We Have Once Enjoyed by Helen Keller

What we have once enjoyed
we can never lose;
All that we love deeply,
becomes a part of us.