Talking about pandemic flu
The National Association of County and City Health Officials and the Centers for Disease Control are sponsoring a Web discussion on how the nation should respond to a pandemic flu outbreak.
From the e-mail:
The chance of a deadly worldwide outbreak of influenza (a pandemic) is increasing, according to experts. Early in such an outbreak, the United States will lack an adequate supply of vaccine. This will be no one's fault. Rather, it will be because developing and making an effective vaccine will take months. The regular flu vaccine we have now probably won't work against any new flu virus powerful enough to cause a pandemic.The groups are seeking citizen input for guidelines on responding to a pandemic, particularly priorities for who should receive vaccines first from the limited supply available. They have scheduled a "Web dialogue" for Dec. 4-6. Anyone can participate. For information or to register, visit http://www.webdialogues.net/panflu/engage.If this happens, there will need to be difficult and painful decisions made about how to distribute a limited supply of vaccine. Who should get it first? Who should get it second? What are our priorities?