Ask Liz: The Flu & Text Message Donations

In case you missed it on-air...

Why is there a limit on how much you can donate to charities through texting? The mGive Foundation, which helps consumers give donations over their cell phones to nonprofits, told us:

  • Limits on donations come from the cell phone carriers.
  • One reason for these limitations may be that there is a credit limit for cell phone customers -- especially for pre-paid accounts where a customer may not have the funds to pay for a donation.
  • However, the mGive Foundation says that most consumers can give up to $30/month over text messaging.
  • A side note: if you’d like to give more, many charities have a donation option on their website.

How soon will you get sick if you’re exposed to the flu virus, and how long is the flu contagious? The Centers for Disease Control helped us with this answer:

  • After a person is exposed to the flu virus, they normally start showing symptoms after one to four days.
  • On average, they will start showing symptoms after two days.
  • The period where a sick person is contagious depends on age and health factors.
  • However, most adults can infect others from the day before showing symptoms and up to five days after developing symptoms.
  • Also, young children can be contagious for longer than a week.

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