Obamas Get Swine Flu Shots

The Obama girls already received their shots. Now, the Obamas get theirs:

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have received their swine flu shots.

Obama said Monday that he and his wife "just got the shots." A White House official later said Obama was vaccinated at the White House on Sunday and that Mrs. Obama was vaccinated a few days before her husband.

The president also encouraged everyone to get vaccinated against the H1N1 strain of flu now that the vaccine is available to the general public. The vaccines had been restricted to high-risk groups such as children.

Obama said the vaccine is safe. MSNBC

Obama Declares Swine Flu Emergency to Speed Treatment

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.MSNBC

A new PSA from the Department of Health and the Jim Henson Co:

Elmo and Rosita on the right way to sneeze:

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Fox News dramatizes Obama's declaration, which is simply meant to speed treatment. This reporter waaaaay over does it and doesn't give any balance. As MSNBC noted, it's like declaring an emergency in the event of a hurricane to speed relief.

Valerie Jarrett on Meet the Press Oct. 18

The first thing David Gregory does is throw up "Obama's economy" stats on the screen, laying blame. Gregory knows, anyone who's paying attention knows, that Obama is not to blame for those stats. There's no feasible way that democrats or republicans could've turned the economy around within 10 months.
The economic mess we got ourselves into will take time to recover from. We're at a point in history, reckoning with a number of different things, such as other nations emerging as more economically powerful, more educated than the U.S.
The nation's economy is fundamentally screwed up. It's been driven by greed at the top and consumer greed for more things. That kind of economy is not sustainable.
The question is, what's to be done?
At the roundtable, they discuss Maria Shriver's new report, A Women's Nation, which gives fuel to the idea that workplaces need to be more accommodating to families.

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Duncan and Sebelius Announce Swine Flu Guidance for Educators

Up to 90,000 people could die of swine flu --twice the number who die of regular flu every year -- and children are more susceptible. One of the most important things to battle the spread of the flu is to keep sick kids at home. But how many parents will do that? Employers ought to make a concerted effort to inform workers that if they have sick kids, they should stay home. Employers should also pay them while they're caring for their kids, but I suppose that's asking for too much.

Seems to me that if we truly did have an epidemic, our health care system wouldn't be ready to battle it for the simple reason that millions of people don't have health insurance. Read more on swine flu here.

Today, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius released recommendations for preventing the spread of the flu for schools. Read those recommendations here.

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Napolitano Announces Task Force to Stop Flu Spread

Meanwhile, CDC says U.S. swine flu deaths likely. But Sanjay Gupta says swine flu is easing (I'm with Gupta):

Federal officials warned on Tuesday that swine-flu related deaths were likely in the United States as the disease that killed scores in Mexico continued to spread across the world and governments intensified steps to battle the outbreak.

The number of confirmed cases in the United States was raised to 68, but states and cities were reporting more suspected cases. In New York, the city’s health commissioner said “many hundreds” of schoolchildren were ill at a school where some students had confirmed cases.

President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion in emergency funds to fight the fast-spreading disease. MSNBC

Gibbs Press Briefing April 27

Gibbs Press Briefing April 26

A special Sunday briefing on swine flu.

Rick Perry Asks for Federal Help With Swine Flu

Oh, this is what taxes pay for!
Texas governor Rick Perry, who starred at a recent tea party, saying Texas might want to go it alone, now wants federal help with swine flu.
The latest:

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8 Confirmed Swine Flu Cases in U.S.

Update 4-26: The strain found in NY is the same as the strain in Mexico. Visit pandemicflu.gov for the latest. 
Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Richard Besser talks about the possibility of a pandemic. What is a pandemic, aside from being a media magnet?

"A pandemic is basically a global epidemic -- an epidemic that spreads to more than one continent," says Dan Epstein, a spokesman for the Pan American Health Organization, a regional office of the World Health Organization.

Influenza pandemics have struck about three times every century since the 1500s, or roughly every 10-50 years. There was one in 1957-1958 and one in 1968-1969. The most infamous pandemic flu of the 20th century, however, was that of 1918-1919. An estimated 40 million people died in less than a year, and what made it so different from seasonal flu epidemics is that it killed primarily young people, those aged 20-45. WebMD

Tamaflu has proven effective in beating the virus, so perhaps talk of a pandemic is hype at this point. There are 6 cases in California and 2 in Texas. The best thing you can do is wash your hands regularly. No, you can't get it from eating bacon. 
Here's a story that looks at how this virus may have started. Makes sense to me.

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Here's more from the CDC.
Obama monitoring swine flu: