Results tagged “kathleensebelius”

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius hit the airwaves this morning, trying to reassure Americans about the swine flu vaccine. Noting that many people have been frustrated by the shortage, she said supply "is coming out the door as fast as it comes off the production line. We were relying on the manufacturers to give us their numbers and as soon as we got numbers we put them out to the public. It does appear now that those numbers were overly rosy."

Though the Department of Health and Human Services is warning that swine flu vaccines may not take full effect until Thanksgiving, city officials say they don't think the flu will shutter schools.

Swine flu relief might be coming soon in the form of a shot. NY1 says that White House officials are laying plans for distribution of an H1N1 vaccine by as early as October, with priority going to at-risk groups like pregnant women. That, of course, assumes no hitches in vaccine production or testing, which Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius confirms will soon be underway: "We're moving towards the likelihood of a specific vaccine for H1N1...What we need to do is make sure we have a safe vaccine." That likelihood is particularly welcome news following today's Health Department announcement of nine more New York City deaths linked to the H1N1 virus. But, as Newsday reports, the city's new swine flu death toll of 47 could get much worse if the virus mutates in time for the fall flu season, a possibility that Mayor Bloomberg says alarms him: "We're certainly worried about what happens in the fall and we're making sure that we have, to the extent we can, facilities to treat people." The latest H1N1 victims were not identified by the Health Department, but they range in ages from 25 to 65.