Bob Collins
A quick trip around Planet Flu:
• Wisconsin announced today that four more people have died from H1N1. The state also said it will tell health care providers to stop conducting mass swine-flu vaccinations starting next week until vaccine supplies increase. Only target high-risk groups will get the vaccine.
(Minnesota reported two more deaths today.)
• “Swine flu police” told elderly California people to leave a vaccination clinic. “We’re doing this for the children,” a health official said. “Local government officials, hospital workers and doctors in private practice are being conscripted as ad hoc swine flu police,” the New York Times reports. Some people appear to be sneaking into clinics to get the shots.
• In Texas, more than 45,000 at-risk prisoners will receive the swine flu vaccine, Texas prison officials said. They’re at-risk, too.
• President Obama’s daughters got vaccinated this week. There was no favoritism involved, the White House suggested. They received the vaccine “using the same process as every other vaccination site in the District,” according to the first lady’s Press Secretary Katie McCormick-Lelyveld. The president has not had the vaccine yet. Should he? When is someone supposed to be important and when is someone just one of the people?
• If enough people are afraid of H1N1, the Internet will get sick.
• What’s the first thing people ask when someone says, “I don’t feel good.”? Usually it’s “do you have a fever?” Now, MPR’s Lorna Benson has revealed, you can have H1N1 and not have a fever.
