Easy quetion I hope someone can get the right answer i will post the answer after i get enough votes so tell your friends. I kknow this does not have to do with polotics but i do think we ned to adress the IQ of Americaz with an easy technology question.

There has been many things in the news about homosexuals and they are fighting for gay rights. This concerns me because Obama is giving them these rights. Really I think he should be focusing more on the economy not the gay community, that brought to my attention about some schools having a “Gay Straight Alliance” club (GSA) which is making at least me uncomfortable about that idea so here is a poll for you “the people” to vote on. Also you the people can leave a comment as well to express yourself.

WASHINGTON – Swine flu vaccinations began Monday with squirts up the noses of health care workers in Indiana, Illinois and Tennessee — it just tickled, shrugged one — as the government opened a massive effort to immunize over half the nation in a few months.  

But don’t try to line up an appointment just yet: Only as many as 7 million doses of vaccine are expected by week’s end. Divided up, that makes for such small initial shipments that most states are reserving early vaccine for doctors and other front-line health workers who already are being sneezed on by flu sufferers.

“I needed that protection,” said Dr. John Eshun, a gastroenterologist who was among the first in line for vaccine at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospitalin Memphis, Tenn. More than 5,500 kids with flulike illness have sought emergency care at that hospital since Aug. 1.

In Indianapolis, health workers made jokes as they waited to have FluMist — the nasal-spray vaccine that, packed in white coolers, was the first shipped — squirted into each nostril while TV cameras rolled.

“It’s manufactured the same way as the seasonal flu vaccine, and I never get the flu,” said Jennifer McFarland, 30, an Indianapolis paramedic who swears by her annual vaccination and this year will need two — one to protect against swine flu and the other to protect against regular winter flu.

Vaccinations against swine flu — what scientists call the 2009 H1N1 strain — won’t gear up in earnest until mid-October, when at least 40 million doses will have rolled out, with more coming each week. Even then, first doses are supposed to be for the people at highest risk of catching swine flu. Arkansas earmarked its first shipment, expected Tuesday, for in-school vaccinations. Pennsylvania, too, will send early shipments to school-age kids in parts of the state where swine flu already is active.

But this is uncharted territory. You really can’t plan too far ahead to say, “I’ll schedule my swine flu shot on Oct. 16 at Clinic X.” Only as shipments start arriving will local doctors, clinics, school vaccination programs and drugstores get word that their doses are coming and how much. Each state health department decides that.

“Take a deep breath, be patient, wait a couple of days, make another phone call and cut everyone a little slack because it’s a little hectic out there, folks,” says Dr. William Schaffner, a flu vaccine specialist at Vanderbilt University.

And keep track of which vaccine you’ve gotten: Recipients of the swine flu vaccine are being given “vaccination record” cards to help. Seasonal vaccine is widely available now, even through workplaces, but the lower-risk general public may not get access to the swine flu vaccine until November.

Here’s what you need to know:

Q: Why not wait to start until there’s enough for everybody instead of the confusing here-and-there vaccinations?

A: Even though Sunday was the official start of flu season, this H1N1 wasn’t heeding the calendar — it’s already causing illness in nearly every state. That means getting vaccine to the people at highest risk is a race. So each week, states will distribute however much they have on hand.

Q: If factories are still racing vaccine out the door, how can I be sure it’s safe?

A: The Food and Drug Administration clears batches of vaccine before they’re released. The H1N1 vaccine is made in the same way as the regular winter flu vaccine that is used with very few, minor side effects by nearly 100 million Americans a year. There’s no biological reason the H1N1 vaccine should react any differently, and no red flags have appeared in studies of several thousand people.

“What I want people to know is that no corners have been cut at all,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Indianapolis Monday, Marion County Health Department directorDr. Virginia Caine was even more blunt: “Its safe. It’s not an experimental vaccine,” she said as she held up a dose headed to area hospitals.

Q: Why is the nasal-spray vaccine arriving before the shots, and can I use either one?

A: They’re considered equally effective, but FluMist finished brewing sooner. There is an important difference, though. Flu shots, made of killed flu virus, are for anyone without an egg allergy. FluMist, besides the egg issue, is only for use in healthy people ages 2 to 49 — no pregnancy or underlying conditions. It’s made of live but weakened flu virus. So some people on the first-in-line list for the new H1N1 vaccine aren’t eligible for FluMist.

Q: Who’s first in line?

A: Pregnant women; the young, ages 6 months through 24 years; people younger than 64 who have conditions such as asthma or diabetes that increase the risk of complications from flu; health workers and caregivers of newborns.

Q: I thought flu was most dangerous to people 65 and older.

A: Regular winter flu is most dangerous to older adults, but the new H1N1 is predominantly striking the young.

Q: How many shots, or squirts, will I need?

A: Most people will need one dose each of the swine flu vaccine and the regular winter flu vaccine. But health authorities believe children under 10 will need two doses of the swine flu vaccine, about three weeks apart. And some very young children getting their first regular flu vaccination will need two doses of it, too, for a total a four inoculations.

Q: If the new H1N1 is the only flu strain making people sick now, why do I need the regular shot?

A: Health authorities expect regular flu strains to start circulating, too, as it gets colder; seasonal flu typically peaks in January.

Q: Can I get both types of vaccine at the same visit?

A: If you’re lucky enough to find a provider who has both at the same time, a jab in each arm is OK, or a jab of one and a squirt of the other. If you opt for the FluMist version of each vaccine, however, you’re supposed to wait three to four weeks between squirts.

Q: What will it cost?

A: The H1N1 vaccine itself is free because the government bought it with your tax dollars. But providers can charge a fee for administering it, usually about $20. Regular flu shots tend to cost up to $35.

 MyView:  I Think that having a vaccination for the people is good but we need to do better with it. we kind of missed the widespread part of it so no one really seems to care. I think we should be more concerned about getting out of the depression (or at least the Americans).

President Barack Obama said Wednesday that schools should close temporarily if any students have confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu.

He was reiterating guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Education Department.

Here are their recommendations for schools:

CLOSING

Schools and child care centers should close if they have a confirmed case of swine flu or a suspected case that is linked to a confirmed case. All school-related gatherings should be canceled, and parents and students should avoid gatherings outside of school as well.

Decisions about closing other facilities nearby should be left to local authorities. Big gatherings linked to schools or other places where swine flu cases have been confirmed should be canceled.

REOPENING

Schools and child care centers should consult with local and state health departments. They may consider reopening if no additional confirmed or suspected cases are found within seven days.

NOTIFICATION

Schools should inform students, parents and staff about the symptoms, which can include cough, sore throat, body aches, headaches and fever.

They should stress preventive measures such as washing hands frequently and covering your mouth when coughing or sneezing.

Students with flu-like symptoms should be referred to a health care provider. Experts say there is no need to single out students who have recently traveled to Mexico; they should only be asked to stay home if they have flu symptoms.

ISOLATION

Those who have the flu should stay home for seven days after the onset of the illness. But other so-called “social distancing” measures are not recommended.

WASHINGTON – Education officials say nearly 300 schools around the country have closed because of concerns about spreading swine flu — and more are expected to.

The Education Department’s count stood at 298 on Thursday, tripling from around 100 on Wednesday. Most will be closed only for a few days.

About 172,000 students are affected in 11 states, from every region of the country.

A top official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said schools should close if they have a confirmed flu case, or they strongly suspect one. Previously, the government said such schools should only consider closing.

The schools that have closed are still a small share of the 132,000 nationwide.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Students aren’t the only ones staying home as swine flu spreads through schools across the country. Parents are nursing their ailing kids while trying not to get sick themselves.

Raquel Mooradian and her husband, Greg, have been holed up in their apartment in the New York borough of Queens since their daughter Felicia, 17, fell ill on Friday. Felicia is a senior at St. Francis Preparatory School, where hundreds of students got sick after a group returned from spring break in Mexico.

Raquel has been skipping her classes at a local college, and Greg has called in sick at work. Raquel Mooradian said she covers her face when she goes into her daughter’s bedroom to bring her soup, water or Gatorade.

“She’s able to talk but says, ‘Let me sleep, let me sleep,’” Raquel said.

As of midday Wednesday, the latest national accounting available, about 100 of the nation’s 132,000 schools had closed and Texas authorities had suspended high school sports.

But the number of closed schools more than doubled overnight, when the Fort Worth Independent School District in Texas announced it was closing its 140 schools, affecting about 80,000 students. On Thursday, 62 schools in Huntsville, Ala., and Madison, Ala., closed, affecting 31,000 students, and state officials suspended high school sports at least through Monday.

Separately on Wednesday, a top official from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised the urgency of the government’s advice to schools.

At a House hearing, Dr. Anne Schuchat said the recommendation that schools consider closing if they have a confirmed case should be a notch stronger now. “At this point we do think it’s very prudent to close schools when a case has been confirmed or is highly suspect,” Schuchat told the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Preparation by schools is crucial because children every year play a major role in spreading influenza, and experts have said that would be no different during a pandemic. The nation’s pandemic preparation plans assume child infection rates approaching about 40 percent.

In a worldwide epidemic — which the swine flu outbreak is not — government planning documents say schools could be closed for up to 12 weeks.

The consequences of having kids at home reach far beyond school walls.

President Barack Obama said Wednesday parents everywhere should start preparing for the possibility that their kids may be sent home.

“Our public health officials have recommended that schools with confirmed or suspected cases of this flu strongly consider temporarily closing,” Obama said as he began a news conference Wednesday night. “And if more schools are forced to close, we’ve recommended that both parents and businesses think about contingency plans if their children do have to stay home.”

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said employers need to plan too.

“All of us should be dusting off our business contingency plans, looking at things such as telecommuting and the like so that operations keep on going,” she said.

“There is a large ripple effect,” acknowledged Kathleen Sebelius, Obama’s newly approved health secretary. “What happens to the parents? Where do those children go? Do you close the day care center if a younger sibling is there?”

Local officials make the decisions on schools, after weighing conditions in their cities, towns and counties.

So far, closings have affected at least 170,000 students, among the 56 million enrolled nationwide in K-12 education in public and private schools. Most of the closings are individual schools, not entire systems. Most are expected to be short-term, a week or so. Some of the children who got sick are already recovering.

If the outbreak turns into a killer flu, classes could continue even if schools are shut.

If they’ve planned for it, teachers could give their lessons by Internet, television, radio, telephone, mail or through their community newspapers.

If a flu case is confirmed at a school, local district officials may close down that school alone. Clusters of cases at different schools could prompt the closing of an entire system. Closings in many communities may lead to a statewide shutdown.

The decision to close a school is not to be taken lightly.

“It’s not just about the schools,” explained Kim Elliott, deputy director of Trust for America’s Health, an independent public health organization. “If a community is thinking about closing schools, they’re also probably thinking about closing day care centers. And children also depend on schools for a lot of services other than education, including lunch programs and after-school care.”

In Mexico, where the illnesses have been more severe, the government closed schools nationwide. In the U.S., authorities will deal with the problem from the ground up, not from the top down.

“It is the state and local role to plan what’s going to happen, as far as day-to-day or hour-to-hour,” said Brenda Greene, director of school health programs for the National School Boards Association.

The federal government has taken a leading role in helping states and local communities plan for a public health disaster. Washington’s concern grew from the anthrax attacks of 2001 and the 2005 bird flu scare that sparked fears of global infection.

In Congress, the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, Democrat George Miller of California, said Wednesday he will hold a hearing next week on how schools and businesses are prepared to handle the swine flu virus.

On a conference call Monday, officials from the Education Department and the CDC answered questions from more than 1,400 people from school districts, state education offices and education groups.

Education officials said many asked what circumstances should prompt schools to close. They were encouraged to follow the CDC’s recommendation that schools close if they have a confirmed case or if they have a suspected case that is linked to a confirmed case.

In the end, making the decision is a balancing act, not an on-off switch, said Robert M. Pestronk, a former public health officer who heads the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

“Because there is one case in one school, or 10 cases, doesn’t lead to a decision to close a whole district,” said Pestronk. “It’s a case of balancing the risk that is potentially present against the need for communities to operate normally on a day-to-day basis. You’re trying to protect people’s health and not completely shut down communities.”

There may be alternatives to closing schools.

Researchers at Georgia Tech modeled the effects of two options: a voluntary quarantine of affected households in a severe flu, and school closures. They found that both would work about as well.

“It’s information that boards of education should consider,” said Julie Swann, a professor of industrial engineering who collaborated in the study. “In some cases, you might want to do both kinds of interventions.”

WASHINGTON – The Food and Drug Administration has found at least 20 Web sites that may be fraudulently marketing products with claims that they guard against or cure swine flu, an agency official said Monday.

The FDA publicly rebuked one such site Monday — http://rebuildermedical.com — for offering a $199 “SilverCure Swine Flu Protection Pack” that includes shampoo, lotion, conditioner and soap that supposedly deposit traces of silver.

“Everything you need to protect yourself and family,” the Web site says. But the FDA says no silver-based products have been approved for swine flu treatment or prevention, so it’s illegal to claim such benefits.

Alyson Saben, who heads a new FDA swine flu consumer fraud team, told The Associated Press in an interview that ReBuilderMedical Technologies Inc. will have 48 hours to take corrective action or face criminal or regulatory action from the FDA.

A phone message and e-mail to the company were not immediately returned.

Officials on the new swine fraud team working over the weekend found at least 20 other sites peddling products for swine flu accompanied by potentially fraudulent claims, Saben said.

She declined to identify the other sites until the agency investigates their claims and makes a decision about their accuracy. But she said they were things like antiviral medications being sold without a doctor’s prescription, dietary supplements with exaggerated claims, and flu diagnostic and protection kits.

“Unfortunately we see that these deceptive products are being offered, and by purveyors of products that take advantage of the public’s concerns about the virus,” Saben said. “FDA will consider whatever means are necessary and available to us to immediately stop the marketing of unapproved, uncleared or unauthorized products.”

The FDA is asking members of the public to notify the agency when they encounter potentially fraudulent products. Tips can be submitted at: http://www.fda.gov/oci/flucontact.html

Forms of silver like ionic silver or colloidal silver — none of them approved for swine flu — are nonetheless easy to find online accompanied by claims that they fight or prevent the new flu. A Web site called http://www.swineflugone.com is selling a 2 oz. spritzer bottle with a concoction of ionic silver, echinecea, eucalyptus and spearmint and claiming it will “Stop Swine Flu in Its Tracks.”

Another site, http://www.flu-watch.org, claims to disclose “What the CDC won’t tell you that just may save your life.” Colloidal silver is offered as a lifesaving cure.

Other sites are selling the antiviral Tamiflu apparently without requiring a doctors’ prescriptions, or expensive kits of surgical masks, gloves, and anti-bacterial wipes and gels.

Surgical masks and gloves are medical devices and must have FDA approval. But even if the items themselves being sold are FDA-approved, the claims being made about them may not be accurate, Saben said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not recommend widespread use of face masks, saying only that they may be useful — along with other measures — for people who may be in close contact with people may have flu. Surgical gloves are only recommended for people like first responders having direct contact with ill people.

 

I made this video myself. Tell Me what you think, put a vote down.

BOSTON (Reuters) –

A malicious software program known as Conficker that many feared would wreak havoc on April 1 is slowly being activated, weeks after being dismissed as a false alarm, security experts said.

Conficker, also known as Downadup or Kido, is quietly turning thousands of personal computers into servers of e-mail spam and installing spyware, they said.

The worm started spreading late last year, infecting millions of computers and turning them into “slaves” that respond to commands sent from a remote server that effectively controls an army of computers known as a botnet.

Its unidentified creators started using those machines for criminal purposes in recent weeks by loading more malicious software onto a small percentage of computers under their control, said Vincent Weafer, a vice president with Symantec Security Response, the research arm of the world’s largest security software maker, Symantec Corp.

“Expect this to be long-term, slowly changing,” he said of the worm. “It’s not going to be fast, aggressive.”

Conficker installs a second virus, known as Waledac, that sends out e-mail spam without knowledge of the PC’s owner, along with a fake anti-spyware program, Weafer said.

The Waledac virus recruits the PCs into a second botnet that has existed for several years and specializes in distributing e-mail spam.

“This is probably one of the most sophisticated botnets on the planet. The guys behind this are very professional. They absolutely know what they are doing,” said Paul Ferguson, a senior researcher with Trend Micro Inc, the world’s third-largest security software maker.

He said Conficker’s authors likely installed a spam engine and another malicious software program on tens of thousands of computers since April 7.

He said the worm will stop distributing the software on infected PCs on May 3 but more attacks will likely follow.

“We expect to see a different component or a whole new twist to the way this botnet does business,” said Ferguson, a member of The Conficker Working Group, an international alliance of companies fighting the worm.

Researchers had feared the network controlled by the Conficker worm might be deployed on April 1 since the worm surfaced last year because it was programed to increase communication attempts from that date.

The security industry formed the task force to fight the worm, bringing widespread attention that experts said probably scared off the criminals who command the slave computers.

The task force initially thwarted the worm using the Internet’s traffic control system to block access to servers that control the slave computers.

Viruses that turn PCs into slaves exploit weaknesses in Microsoft’s Windows operating system. The Conficker worm is especially tricky because it can evade corporate firewalls by passing from an infected machine onto a USB memory stick, then onto another PC.

The Conficker botnet is one of many such networks controlled by syndicates that authorities believe are based in eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, China and Latin America.

Concern that the world could be on the brink of the first influenza pandemic in more than 40 years escalated Sunday as France, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Spain reported potential new cases in which people had been infected with swine flu and Canada confirmed several new cases. In the U.S., where 20 such infections have been confirmed, federal health officials declared a public-health emergency and are preparing to distribute to state and local agenciesa quarter of the country’s 50 million-dose stockpile of antiviral drugs. Meanwhile, in hard-hit Mexico, where more than 80 people have died from what is believed to be swine flu, the government closed all public schools and canceled hundreds of public events in Mexico City.

 

Though the World Health Organization (WHO) is referring to the situation as a “public-health emergency of international concern,” the apparent emergence in several countries of an entirely new strain of H1N1 flu virus has led some scientists to believe that it is only a matter of time before the WHO declares pandemic status, a move that could prompt travel bans to infected countries. “We are clearly seeing wide spread,” says Michael Osterholm, a pandemic risk expert who runs the University of Minnesota‘s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. “There is no question.” (Read about the vaccine being prepared in case of a pandemic.)

 

Health officials in Washington were quick to point out Sunday that none of the 20 cases identified in the U.S. so far has been fatal; all but one of the victims has recovered without needing to be hospitalized. Officials also noted that only one American has been infected so far who had not recently traveled to Mexico – a woman in Kansas got sick after her husband returned from a business trip in that country, where he became ill – but that could change as more intensive disease surveillance begins. “As we continue to look for more cases, I expect we’re going to find them,” said acting Centers for Disease Control (CDC) director Richard Besser.

 

In the U.S., where cases have also been found in California, Texas, and New York City, the declaration of a public-health emergency is part of what federal officials termed an “aggressive response” to the outbreaks. In addition to releasing from the national stockpile some 12.5 million doses of the antiviral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza – which scientists say has so far been effective against the H1N1 swine flu virus – the Department of Homeland Security will begin “passive surveillance” to screen people entering the U.S. Any traveler coming from a country with a confirmed human swine flu infection will be questioned, checked for symptoms and potentially isolated if they are found ill. Though the CDC has issued public warnings about the more serious outbreak in Mexico, there are no recommendations from Washington against traveling to the neighboring country.

 

That is in contrast to the more extreme actions of some other governments, including Hong Kong, where officials on Sunday urged residents to avoid going to Mexico. Hong Kong officials also ordered the immediate detention in a hospital of anyone who arrives with a fever above 100.4 F, respiratory symptoms and a history of traveling over the past seven days to a city with a confirmed case of swine flu infection.

 

But Washington officials Sunday did their best not to overstate the situation and emphasized that their response wasn’t out of the ordinary. “I wish we could call it declaration of emergency preparedness, because that’s really what it is in this context,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. “We’re preparing in an environment where we really don’t know ultimately what the size or seriousness of this outbreak is going to be.”

 

See the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2008.

 

See TIME’s pictures of the week.

Right now health officials around the world are trying to take precautions without inciting panic. Here are just a few of the questions facing them – and ultimately, us as well:

 

 

1. Is this a flu pandemic?

 

The influenza virus is constantly mutating. That’s why we can’t get full immunity to the flu, the way we can to diseases like chicken pox, because there are multiple strains of the flu virus and they change from year to year. However, even though the virus makes us sick, our immune systems can usually muster enough of a response so that the flu is rarely fatal for healthy people.

 

But every once in awhile, the virus shifts its genetic structure so much that our immune systems offer no protection whatsoever. (This usually happens when a flu virus found in animals – like the avian flu still circulating in Asia – swaps genes with other viruses in a process called reassortment, and jumps to human beings.) A flu pandemic occurs when a new flu virus emerges for which humans have little or no immunity and then spreads easily from person to person around the world. In the 20th century we had two mild flu pandemics, in 1968 and 1957, and the severe “Spanish flu” pandemic of 1918, which killed an estimated 40 to 50 million people worldwide.

 

The WHO has the responsibility of declaring when a new flu pandemic is underway, and to simplify the process, the U.N. body has established six pandemic phases. Thanks to H5N1 avian flu, which has killed 257 people since 2003 but doesn’t spread very well from one human to another, we’re currently at phase 3. If the WHO upgraded that status to phase 4, which is marked by a new virus that begins to pass easily enough from person to person that we can detect community-sized outbreaks, such a move would effectively mean that we’ve got a pandemic on our hands.

 

The H1N1 swine flu virus has already been identified as a new virus, with genes from human and avian flus as well as the swine variety. And since it is apparently causing large-scale outbreaks in Mexico, along with separate confirmed cases in the U.S. and Canada and suspected cases in other countries, it would seem that we’ve already met the criteria for phase 4. But though an emergency committee met on April 25 to evaluate the situation, the WHO hasn’t made the pandemic declaration yet. Keiji Fukuda, the WHO’s interim assistant director-general for health, security and environment, said on Sunday that its experts “would like a little bit more information and a little bit more time to consider this.” The committee is set to meet again by April 28 at the latest.

 

As health officials have repeatedly emphasized, with good reason, the swine flu situation is evolving rapidly, and more lab tests are needed to ascertain exactly what is going on in Mexico and elsewhere. “We want to make sure we’re on solid ground,” said Fukuda, a highly respected former CDC official and flu expert.

 

2. What will happen if this outbreak gets classified as a pandemic?

 

Moving the world to pandemic phase 4 would be the signal for serious containment actions to be taken on the national and international level. Given that these actions would have major implications for the global economy, not to mention the effects of the public fear that would ensue, there is concern that the WHO may be considering politics along with science. “What the WHO did makes no sense,” says Osterholm. “In a potential pandemic, you need to have the WHO be beyond question, and (April 25) was not a good day for them.”

 

Of course, declaring a pandemic isn’t a decision that should be taken lightly. For the WHO, phase 4 might trigger an attempt to keep the virus from spreading by instituting strict quarantines and blanketing infected areas with antivirals. But we appear to have missed the opportunity to contain the disease at its source since the virus is already crossing borders with ease. “We cannot stop this at the border,” said Anne Schuchat, the CDC’s interim director for science and public health. “We don’t think that we can quench this in Mexico if it’s in many communities now.”

 

See the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2008.

See TIME’s pictures of the week.

That would leave the WHO and individual countries to fall back on damage control, using antivirals and old-fashioned infection control – like closing schools, limiting public gatherings and even restricting travel – to slow the spread of the virus. But such efforts would likely inflict serious damage on an already faltering global economy – and the truth is, we don’t know how well those methods will work.

 

3. Why have the U.S. cases been so much milder than the ones in Mexico?

This is the question that has health officials from Geneva to Washington puzzled. In Mexico, swine flu has caused severe respiratory disease in a number of patients – and even more worryingly, has killed the sort of young and healthy people who can normally shrug off the flu. (Fueling such concerns is the fact that similar age groups died in unusually high numbers during the 1918 pandemic.) Yet the cases in the U.S. have all been mild and likely wouldn’t have even garnered much attention if doctors hadn’t begun actively looking for swine flu in recent days. “What we’re seeing in this country so far is not anywhere near the severity of what we’re hearing about in Mexico,” said the CDC’s Besser. “We need to understand that.”

Some of the difference may be due to the fact that Mexico has apparently been grappling with swine flu for weeks longer than the U.S. As doctors across the U.S. begin checking patients with respiratory symptoms for swine flu, CDC officials expect to see more severe cases in the U.S. as well – and as better epidemiological work is done in Mexico, we’ll probably hear about more mild cases there too. Right now, however, the true severity of the H1N1 swine flu virus is still an open question, whose answer could change over time. The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic began with a fairly mild wave of infections in the spring, but the virus returned a few months later in a far more virulent form. That could happen with the current swine flu as well. “It’s quite possible for this virus to evolve,” said Fukuda. “When viruses evolve, clearly they can become more dangerous to people.”

4. How ready is the U.S. – and the world – to respond to a flu pandemic?

In some ways, the world is better prepared for a flu pandemic today than it has ever been. Thanks to concerns over H5N1 avian flu, the WHO, the U.S. and countries around the world have stockpiled millions of doses of antivirals that can help fight swine flu as well as other strains of influenza. The U.S. has a detailed pandemic preparation plan that was drafted under former President George W. Bush. Many other countries have similar plans. SARS and bird flu have given international health officials useful practice runs for dealing with a real pandemic. We can identify new viruses faster than ever before, and we have life-saving technologies – like artificial respirators and antivirals – that weren’t available back in 1918. “I believe that the world is much, much better prepared than we have ever been for dealing with this kind of situation,” said Fukuda.

At the same time, the very nature of globalization puts us at greater risk. International air travel means that infections can spread very quickly. And while the WHO can prepare a new swine flu vaccine strain in fairly short order, we still use a laborious, decades-old process to manufacture vaccines, meaning it would take months before the pharmaceutical industry could produce its full capacity of doses – and even then, there wouldn’t be enough for everyone on the planet. The U.S. could be particularly vulnerable; only one plant, in Stillwater, Penn., makes flu vaccine in America. In a pandemic, that could produce some ugly political debates. “Do you really think the E.U. is going to release pandemic vaccine to the U.S. when its own people need it?” asks Osterholm.

See the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2008.

See TIME’s pictures of the week.

Indeed, the greatest risk from a pandemic might not turn out to be from the swine flu virus itself – especially if it ends up being relatively mild – but what Osterholm calls “collateral damage” if governments respond to the emergency by instituting border controls and disrupting world trade. Not only would the global recession worsen – a 2008 World Bank report estimated that a severe pandemic could reduce the world’s GDP by 4.8% – but we depend on international trade now for countless necessities, from generic medicines to surgical gloves. The just-in-time production systems embraced by companies like Wal-Mart – where inventories are kept as low as possible to cut waste and boost profit – mean that we don’t have stockpiles of most things. Supply chains for food, medicines and even the coal that generates half our electricity are easily disruptable, with potentially catastrophic results. Though we’ll likely hear calls to close the border with Mexico, Osterholm points out that a key component used in artificial respirators comes from Mexico. “We are more vulnerable to a pandemic now than at any other time over the past 100 years,” he says. “We can’t depend on ourselves.”

 

5. So how scared should we be?

That depends on whom you ask. Officials at the CDC and the WHO have emphasized that while the swine flu situation is serious, they’re responding with an abundance of precautions. Even Osterholm, who has been highly critical of the U.S. government’s long-term failures to better prepare for a pandemic, gives the CDC a 9 out of 10 for its response so far. Outside of Mexico, the swine flu hasn’t looked too serious yet – unlike during the SARS outbreaks of 2003, when an entirely new virus with no obvious treatment took the world by surprise. In the U.S., the normal flu season is winding down, which should make it easier for public-health officials to pick out swine flu cases from run-of-the-mill respiratory disease. And there are simple things that people can do to protect themselves, like practicing better hygiene (wash hands frequently and cover mouth and nose when sneezing) and staying away from public places or traveling if they feel sick. “There’s a role for everyone to play when an outbreak is ongoing,” said Besser.

But the truth is that every outbreak is unpredictable, and there’s a lot we don’t know yet about the new swine flu. There hasn’t been a flu pandemic for more than a generation, and there hasn’t been a truly virulent pandemic since long before the arrival of mass air transit. We’re in terra incognito here. Panic would be counterproductive – especially if it results in knee-jerk reactions like closing international borders, which would only complicate the public-health response. But neither should we downplay our very real vulnerabilities. As Napolitano put it: “This will be a marathon, not a sprint.” Be prepared.

DETROIT — General Motors Corp. said it will cut 21,000 U.S. factory jobs by next year, phase out its storied Pontiac brand and ask the government to take company stock in exchange for half GM’s government debt as part of a major restructuring effort needed to get more government aid. The struggling automaker also said it will offer 225 shares of common stock for every $1,000 in notes held by bondholders as part of a debt-for-equity swap. The annoucements came in a filing Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. GM is living on $15.4 billion in government loans and faces a June 1 deadline to restructure and get more government money. If the restructuring doesn’t satisfy the government, the company could go into bankruptcy protection. GM said in a press release that it also will ask the government to take 50 percent of its common stock in exchange for canceling half the government loans to the company as of June 1. GM said the bond exchange would wipe away $27 billion in unsecured debt if successful. The company estimates that after the exchange, bondholders would own 10 percent of the company. In addition, GM is offering the United Auto Workers stock for at least 50 percent of the $20 billion the company must pay into a union run trust that will take over retiree health care expenses starting next year. All the stock offerings mean that current common stockholders would own only 1 percent of the company under the deals, the press release says. In premarket trading, GM shares rose 10 cents, or 5.9 percent, to $1.79.