October 25, 2009 05:17 PM UTC

Swine Flu Now a National Emergency

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• by: Colorado Pols

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

President Obama declared swine flu a national emergency, a move intended to give hospitals and other medical facilities more flexibility in coping with the possible surge of infected patients, public health experts said Saturday…

White House officials were quick to note that the emergency declaration does not signify an increase in severity of the national H1N1 outbreak.

Obama’s declaration states that as the swine flu outbreak continues to progress in the United States, “the potential exists for the pandemic to overburden health care resources in some localities.”

Art Reingold, head of epidemiology at UC Berkeley, said the declaration doesn’t mean that the national outbreak is “any worse than it was yesterday or last week.” Instead, he suspects it was issued in part to help state and local governments manage an epidemic that could overwhelm already limited resources after public health budgets were slashed all over the country. [Pols emphasis]

Or maybe Obama’s just “revving up the swine flu hysteria?” Seems like the naysayers are grasping at straws–if El Paso County can’t even inspect the restaurants, pandemic flu is going to pose a pretty major challenge for which all the help they can get is welcome.

Speaking of which, have you had it yet?