White House prepares for swine flu

Top Obama administration officials are holding a swine flu preparedness summit today, trying to make sure that the fall flu season does not bring a more severe outbreak.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius -- who is hosting the meeting with top state officials along with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Education Secretary Arne Duncan -- said that the government is planning a vaccination campaign to stem any spread in schools and daycare centers.

"Over the course of coming weeks and months, we will move aggressively to prepare the nation for the possibility of a more severe outbreak of the H1N1 virus," Sebelius said in a statement. "We ask the American people to become actively engaged with their own preparation and prevention. It's a responsibility we all share."

Health and Human Services will offer grants totaling $350 million to help state and local public health offices and healthcare systems step up efforts, has launched a new informational website, and is holding a contest for a new public service announcement (prize for the winning submission is $2,500) to help educate Americans about how to prevent the spread of H1N1 influenza.

Governors Jim Douglas of Vermont, John Baldacci of Maine, and Jodi Rell of Connecticut joined in a videoconference as part of the summit at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

While H1N1 did not lead to as many deaths as many feared earlier this year, it did cause the first pandemic of the 21st century and specialists fear more cases later. It killed at least 429 people around the world, and at least 1 million infections in the United State, mostly mild cases.

"I think it's clear that although we were fortunate not to see a more serious situation in the spring when we first got news of this outbreak, that the potential for a significant outbreak in the fall is looming," President Obama told the gathering by phone from the G-8 summit in Italy.

"We want to make sure that we are not promoting panic, but we are promoting vigilance and preparation. And the most important thing for us to do in this process is to make sure that state and local officials prepare now to implement a vaccination program in the fall, but also that they are working on an overall public communications campaign with the White House and the possibilities that we may need to be dealing with schools that are seeing significant outbreaks of H1N1."

Obama's full remarks are below:

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT TO THE H1N1 PREPAREDNESS SUMMIT
VIA TELEPHONE

3:30 P.M. (CEST)
SECRETARY SEBELIUS: Mr. President?
THE PRESIDENT: Hi. Kathleen, can you hear me?
SECRETARY SEBELIUS: Buongiorno.
THE PRESIDENT: Buongiorno! (Laughter.)
SECRETARY SEBELIUS: Welcome to the flu summit.
THE PRESIDENT: Is Napolitano there?
SECRETARY SEBELIUS: Secretary Napolitano, Secretary Duncan, and I are -- and 500 eager state and local leaders, education leaders, health leaders are here. We're delighted you could join us.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, just let me tell you that everybody is asking about Janet, including President Napolitano here. (Laughter.) And I'm very appreciative that all of you are there, and my remarks are going to be very brief.
I think it's clear that although we were fortunate not to see a more serious situation in the spring when we first got news of this outbreak, that the potential for a significant outbreak in the fall is looming. And Kathleen, Janet, John Brennan, Arne Duncan, and our entire team have tried to engage in the most rigorous planning exercise to make sure that anything that may occur in the fall, we're prepared for.
And so I won't go through the details of this. I'm sure that Kathleen and Janet and others have laid out what the potential consequences are of a renewed outbreak of H1N1. We want to make sure that we are not promoting panic, but we are promoting vigilance and preparation. And the most important thing for us to do in this process is to make sure that state and local officials prepare now to implement a vaccination program in the fall, but also that they are working on an overall public communications campaign with the White House and the possibilities that we may need to be dealing with schools that are seeing significant outbreaks of H1N1.
And we've looked at past cases of this being properly handled and situations like this being improperly handled, and one of the most important differences is where it's well handled, state and local officials have complete ownership over this issue, they are providing good ideas to the federal government, they are critical links to inform us what's working and what's not.
And so I'm just very grateful that all of you are taking this seriously. We may end up averting a crisis. That's our hope. But I think that if we are all working together in a thoughtful, systematic way based on the best science possible, that even if this turns out to be a serious situation, we can mitigate the damage and protect our neighbors and our friends and coworkers.
So again, my main message to you is to say thank you. You are working with a outstanding team in Kathleen, Janet, Arne, and John. And if there are any issues at all that you think we have not raised, any T's we have not crossed, or I's that we have not dotted that affects either our general approach or your specific community, please let us know. We don't want to find out after the fact that there's some things that we could have done better. We want to find out now and make sure that we're planning ahead.
So Kathleen, good job as always, and I want you to know that in conversations with world leaders about this issue, what's clear is, is that we are way ahead in terms of our planning. And in fact, we may need to provide some guidance and direction to other public health officials in other countries who may not have done such excellent preparation as you have done.
SECRETARY SEBELIUS: Well, thank you, Mr. President. Travel safely. We'll see you back here soon. And now I'd like to --
THE PRESIDENT: Sounds good. Thank you very much everybody.
SECRETARY SEBELIUS: Great to have you with us.