Balanced News Blog

President Barack Obama has signed a proclamation declaring swine flu a national emergency, the White House said Saturday.

“In keeping with the administration’s proactive approach to H1N1 Flu, President Obama last night signed a proclamation declaring 2009-H1N1 Influenza a national emergency,” it said in a statement. “The proclamation enhances the ability of our nation’s medical treatment facilities to handle a surge in H1N1 patients by allowing, as needed, the waiver of certain standard federal requirements on a case-by-case basis.”

Officials described the move as similar to a declaration ahead of a hurricane making landfall.

On Friday, federal health officials said more Americans have been vaccinated against seasonal flu this fall than ever before by this time of year.

Sixty million people have gotten the winter flu vaccine — probably because they’re paying more attention to flu warnings in general, thanks to swine flu. It’s an unprecedented number of seasonal flu shots for October; most usually aren’t given until later in the fall.

Part of it is due to supply: There are already 85 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine available, a much larger amount than usual for this early in the fall. Most years, roughly 100 million doses are used during the season.

But a big factor probably is that swine flu is drawing attention to public health warnings that seasonal flu is also a deadly illness that can be prevented through vaccinations, said Joe Quimby, a spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“There’s been a heightened awareness in the American public due to H1N1 this year,” said Quimby.

Swine flu is also more widespread now than it’s ever been, and has resulted in more than 1,000 U.S. deaths so far.

Flu illnesses are as widespread now as they are at the winter peak of normal flu seasons, CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden told reporters Friday.

“To be basically in the peak of flu season in October is extremely unusual,” he said.

“We expect that influenza will occur in waves and we can’t predict how high, how far or how long the wave will go or when the next will come,” he added.

“Many millions” of Americans have had swine flu so far, according to an estimate he gave at a Friday press conference. The government doesn’t test everyone to confirm swine flu so it doesn’t have an exact count.

Frieden updated some other estimates, too, saying there have been more than 20,000 hospitalizations.

Read more at MSNBC »