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A presidential panel has recommended that the U.S. government speed up availability of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine, develop a better system for tracking the virus and appoint a White House staff member to coordinate the nationwide response.
The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology issued an 86-page report Monday that also recommended developing communications strategies before the resurgence of the H1N1 flu, which is expected to be stronger and more widespread this fall and winter, the Washington Post reported.
The stakes could be high, the panel warned: Up to half of the U.S. population could become infected with the swine flu, 1.8 million people could be hospitalized, and up to 90,000 could die.
The regular seasonal flu typically kills an estimated 36,000 Americans each year, the majority of them elderly.
The president's council also urged the Obama administration to clarify how antiviral drugs can best be used to combat the pandemic, according to the Post report.
"Influenza brings many challenges, and agencies across the government will need to make many key decisions in the face of uncertainty about when and how the virus will play out," Eric Lander of the Broad Institute, council co-chair, said in a statement. "As we did in the spring, we can hope for the best. But we must prepare for the worst."
The World Health Organization in June declared a flu pandemic after the H1N1 virus emerged in Mexico and quickly spread to the United States and other countries around the world.
The U.S. government plans to purchase at least 159 doses of vaccine, but the initial doses aren't expected until mid-October.
Since it was first identified last spring after surfacing in Mexico and quickly spreading to the United States, the H1N1 swine flu virus has continued to produce mild infections, with most people recovering quickly. Unlike regular seasonal flu, however, swine flu seems to target children and young adults.
The good news, according to global health officials, is that the virus has shown no signs of mutating and becoming more virulent as it continues to circle the globe.
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Don't worry Americans...you will most likely have the choice whether or not to get the vaccine. After all this is the USA! If you choose to take the vaccine, well, they gotcha! If you choose not to take the vaccine, well, you will get to go stay in one of the 600 to 800+ fully stocked and operational facilities here in the USA courtesy of the wonderful folks at FEMA. They are going to get you one way or another!
August 25, 2009 - 10:27pmThis Comment
All this talk of vaccines is crazy for swine flu and even more so to contemplate giving it to people without the proper studies being done. Tamiflu fairs no much better with the recent connections to heart complaints. Homeopathic medicine for flu would be much safer, cheaper and easier to do especially in times of economic and health crisis. Also the studies and scientific proof is there. Over 60% of physicians in the UK are refusing to take the flu shot themselves. Perhaps for good reason the facility charged with producing the flu vaccines for the UK and the USA was shut down by the national MCA - Medical Controls Agency for a period of time recently to get its standards up. This was published in the uk press briefly and buried.
August 25, 2009 - 4:24pmWhen Spanish Flu spread in 1918 50 million people died. American hospital statistics at the time show people did better in homeopathic hospitals with survival. For at least the past 150 years homeopathic practitioners have used the medicine Influenzinum as a flu preventive. The first medicine used in France to treat flu is Oscillococcinum made by Boiron and sells 7 million euros annually. Boiron was bought recently by the Bayer group. This Oscillococcinum can be bought on line from Drugstore dot com. This remedy recently toped pharmacy sales list and sales in the US alone are in the region of £20 million. A course costs of Oscillococcinum costs £6, which is used regularly by 5 million French for the prevention of colds and flu’s every year. Lets face it five million French can’t be wrong? The remedy was studied in 1987 and also 1990 during flu epidemics and demonstrated they worked and especially by reducing flu symptoms.
Due to the cytokine storm with this flu and homeopathic medicine being a non chemical medicine – this could be our solution panacea for all these flu’s safely. India has over 250,000 homeopathic doctors.
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