Word: viruses
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...Lander, a person you just heard from, Ernie Moniz, for their service on my council of advisors on science and technology. And they have been hugely helpful to us already on looking at, for example, how the federal government can most effectively respond to the threat of the H1N1 virus. So I'm very grateful to them...
Scary words. But White House officials were quick to assure that Obama's proclamation was more of a formality, and wasn't meant to indicate that the H1N1 virus had suddenly become more deadly or dangerous. Instead, by declaring a national emergency, the White House will allow hospitals and governments on the local level to more rapidly prepare triage sites and procedures to handle any future surge in sick patients. A hospital in danger of being overrun by H1N1 patients would be allowed to segregate them in a separate site for treatment, which might slow the spread of the disease...
...even though the emergency declaration doesn't mean the end of the world has arrived, H1N1 remains a serious threat - and the government's response, on all levels, has been spotty. On Friday the CDC reported that the H1N1 virus is now widespread in 46 U.S. states - a level of flu activity that is usually not seen until later in the winter. Since the virus began spreading, millions of Americans have been infected, at least 20,000 have been hospitalized and 1,000 have died - including nearly 100 children. "To be basically in the peak of the flu season...
...best way to slow the growth of those numbers would be to rapidly manufacture and distribute the new H1N1 vaccine. But that's proven even more difficult than health officials anticipated when the virus first began spreading in the spring. Drug manufacturers have experienced setbacks growing the vaccine - instead of the 120 million doses the CDC had initially hoped to have by the end of October, the real number will likely be closer to 30 million. "Vaccine production is much less predictable than we wish," says Frieden. "We are nowhere near where we thought...
Fortunately, while H1N1 virus has made people a lot of people sick, it hasn't been as deadly as many scientists had initially feared. Even in hard-hit communities, hospitals haven't been overwhelmed. In some parts of the country, the virus may even be waning. States in the Southeast, which experienced spikes in infection when students went back to school in August, are now seeing declines. But pandemics often come in multiple waves of infection, and we may see another spike later in the year, during the colder months of winter - and it could be more severe...