President Obama Declares Flu Emergency; H1N1 Vaccine in Short Supply
Topics: Health
Featured on Episode 7 of the 2009-2010 season, aired on Wednesday, October 28, 2009.
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President Obama has declared a national H1N1 emergency; as thousands of Americans fight the flu bug. The President said that with communities across the country dealing with sick people and vaccination programs, declaring an emergency would help them to take care of patients more quickly. Health workers have been giving the vaccine to people as quickly as they receive it, but so far this fall, supplies have been limited. U.S. Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says that the vaccine is being distributed "as fast as it comes off the production line," and adds that supplies of the vaccine were not as large as predicted. So why are flu defense supplies so little - and so late? One answer might be because we use a 50-year-old technology to produce flu vaccine with eggs. Some school districts are re-thinking their perfect attendance policies. Parents of students at the Bradley Garden School in Bridgewater, New Jersey were pleased by the district's decision to suspend all student awards for perfect attendance, in an effort to encourage sick children to stay home.
Additional Information:
Flu basics from BioEd Online
Why the vaccine shortage? From NPR. Includes video about how virus gets into a cell.
Lesson plan from PBS NewsHour
NOVA Science Now Video Clip 1918 flu
Teaching about the flu from Teacher Planet
A lesson plan for swine flu from the Columbus Dispatch
PBS Secrets of the Dead - Killer Flu
PBS American Experience - Influenza 1918
Lesson Plan: Download the PDF
Grades: 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade
Subjects: Science
Lesson plans and classroom activities. Science, health and math. Grades 2 and up.
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