Pandemic (Public Health)

I was away from last Thursday until Sunday, and without internet access. I wasn’t off the grid, just visiting my brother and his wife, but I didn’t feel like going through the hassle of tracking down their router key to get online. Sunday night and Monday morning were my first exposure to the pile of “IT’S A PANDEMIC” news. Rather than rehash, since most readers who are interested in pandemic news have already seen it, I figured I’d link to the more compelling stories I encountered when I got back online. If nothing else this post will serve to illustrate some of the places I look for information. Due to the number of links I’m just copying titles and attaching the link to them. Also, these are in the order I found them, which may or may not be related to the initial publication.

• Quickly Noted: It Begins (Continues)
• What a Pandemic Means in U.S.: Keep Doing What We’re Doing
• Swine Flu: Officially a Pandemic
• Health Officials Struggle to Estimate Need for Flu Supplies
• Going to phase 6
• We’ve Only Just Begun
• Chan Declares Level 6, Calls Pandemic `Moderate’ Severity
• WHO declares swine flu a pandemic, warns moderate severity expected
• World now at the start of 2009 influenza pandemic
• WHO counts to six
• Statements by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano on WHO Decision to Declare Novel H1N1 Virus Outbreak a Pandemic
• WHO declares swine flu pandemic – BBC
• WHO declares swine flu pandemic – Guardian
• WHO: Swine flu pandemic has begun, 1st in 41 years
• World Health Organization Calls Swine Flu Outbreak a Pandemic
• Declaring a pandemic
• Flu Pandemic Is Declared — First Time in 41 Years
• WHO: Swine flu now a pandemic
• Swine flu is officially a pandemic. But don’t worry … not yet, anyway

Now keep in mind, those are only the ones that dealt mostly with reporting on the declaration (as opposed to fallout, next steps, or editorializing – if I’d included those we’d be here all week). For better or for worse, this is BIG NEWS. Tomorrow I’ll add some of my personal thoughts on what this means.

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