In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

As today is the last day that you can vote in the U.S. Health and Human Services’ H1N1 Flu Prevention PSA contest on Flu.Gov, I thought I would ask some folks from the worlds of social media, public health and/or emergency preparedness for their top pick from the 10 worthy finalists.
Among those I surveyed, the most [...]

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The 10 finalists for the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) YouTube Flu Prevention PSA contest have been announced and posted on Flu.Gov. You can now vote here through September 16th for the winner who will receive a $2500 prize (and whose PSA will be featured on national television).
The finalists are all good and their entries [...]

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While only 1 in 10 of Americans surveyed by the American Red Cross claimed to be very worried about H1N1 flu, 93 percent say they are are taking or planning to take at least one action to guard against the H1n1 flu. The poll was released earlier today.
“Even though most Americans aren’t extremely worried about the virus, [...]

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U.S. officials today offered “guidance” to the private sector in preparing for the H1n1 flu this Fall. In Flu.Gov’s new ‘toolkit’ for businesses, there is “Guidance for Businesses and Employers to Plan and Respond to the 2009 – 2010 Influenza Season.” The section “Actions Employers Should Take Now” includes these key, yet somewhat tricky, recommendations:
*Allow sick workers to [...]

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In today’s Washington Post, there’s a good front page piece, “Northern Hemisphere Braces As Swine Flu Heads North”, which looks at the government’s efforts to plan and prepare for the possible return of the H1N1 flu in the Fall. In fact, H1n1 is on the agenda for President Obama’s meetings with the leaders of Canada and [...]

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CIDRAP News reports that the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) will be holding public forums throughout the nation this month to get citizen feedback on how to implement this Fall’s H1N1 flu vaccinations. According to the article:
The CDC will hold 10 “public engagement” meetings around the country to get the citizenry’s advice on whether the [...]

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A New York Times article Saturday, “Cut Back on Tamiflu, U.S. Official Says”, by Donald G. McNeil, Jr. reports that the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) is asking kids’ summer camps to stop distributing Tamiflu prophylactically, because the agency worries that “giving the drug to healthy people wastes the world’s limited supplies of Tamiflu and [...]

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I read a very smart and helpful post, “Hubris And The Flu” this morning from the blog Avian Flu Diary about the challenge for government in communicating with the public and the media on H1N1.
The piece does a very nice job of illustrating the almost ‘no-win’ communications dilemma governmental entities have on H1N1 (and potential [...]

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This blog often covers my own first-person experiences. The most recent was a bit of a surprise. After covering the H1N1 flu from a distance as a blogger, the virus has hit home. This week, one of my family members was diagnosed with H1N1. She’s already feeling better, and the rest of the family is [...]

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MercuryNews.com has an article, “Got Swine Flu? Tweet It?”, about Santa Clara (California) County’s Public Health Department’s H1N1 flu prevention campaign which will aggressively utilize social media tools to focus on young people:
When students return to school this fall, school nurses will once again chase after them with hand sanitizer. Familiar posters about sneezing into [...]

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