October 24, 2009 in News, Nation/World

Obama declares swine flu a national emergency

• Print
• Email
• Share

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama declared the swine flu outbreak a national emergency and empowered his health secretary to suspend federal requirements and speed treatment for thousands of infected people.

The declaration that Obama signed late Friday authorized Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to bypass federal rules so health officials can respond more quickly to the outbreak, which has killed more than 1,000 people in the United States.

The goal is to remove bureaucratic roadblocks and make it easier for sick people to seek treatment and medical providers to provide it immediately. That could mean fewer hurdles involving Medicare, Medicaid or health privacy regulations.

“As a nation, we have prepared at all levels of government, and as individuals and communities, taking unprecedented steps to counter the emerging pandemic,” Obama wrote in the declaration, which the White House announced Saturday.

He said the pandemic keeps evolving, the rates of illness are rising rapidly in many areas and there’s a potential “to overburden health care resources.”

Because of vaccine production delays, the government has backed off initial, optimistic estimates that as many as 120 million doses would be available by mid-October. As of Wednesday, only 11 million doses had been shipped to health departments, doctor’s offices and other providers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials said.

The government now hopes to have about 50 million doses of swine flu vaccine out by mid-November and 150 million in December.

The flu virus has to be grown in chicken eggs, and the yield hasn’t been as high as was initially hoped, officials explained.

Swine flu is more widespread now than it’s ever been. Health authorities say almost 100 children have died from the flu, known as H1N1, and 46 states now have widespread flu activity.

Worldwide, more than 5,000 people have reportedly died from swine flu since it emerged this year and developed into a global epidemic, the World Health Organization said Friday. Since most countries have stopped counting individual swine flu cases, the figure is considered an underestimate.

___

On the Net:

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/update.htm

Government’s flu site: http://www.flu.gov/

© Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Five comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  SniperCraig on October 24 at 10:20 a.m.

  So this is how he’s going to do it. Infect the population with an artificial virus, hype up a pandemic, declare a national emergency, and next to come will be the suspension of our rights and freedoms under the name of ‘for the better good’.

• 

  spokanada on October 24 at 11:19 a.m.

  I knew the “patriots” would find a way to spin this. Almost as shameful as decrying Obama’s push for volunteerism and bettering one’s community.

  If Obama was to cure cancer I wonder what type of negative spin the right wingnuts would put on it.

• 

  polistra on October 24 at 11:48 a.m.

  This strikes me as a rational move, rare for the Feds. Normally an “emergency declaration” leaves all existing regulations in place, or even clamps down harder, and then throws billions of dollars at the problem to help people work around the Federal obstructions. Katrina was the perfectly awful example of this approach.

  This time the bureaucracy has loosened the obstructions instead of subsidizing the workarounds. It would be even better if they would leave the rules permanently loose after the emergency, but that’s too much to hope.

• 

  Bob_Knows on October 24 at 3:37 p.m.

  All the sheeple are lining up for mind control.

• 

  Lulubelle on October 24 at 7:30 p.m.

  Sniper & Bob are kiddin’…..right?? Please say I’m right…there can’t be real people out there like that.