The White House organized an H1N1 panel to project this season's "swine flu" problem and to evaluate government preparedness. The panel projected 30 to 50% of the nation will contract H1N1 during this fall and winter flu season. That comes to a range of 93 to 155 million cases. Of those, they project 1.8 million hospitalizations and 30,000 to 90,000 deaths. That comes to a death rate of .03% to .06% of cases. We have found previous research from the CDC that estimates regular flu is involved in 36,000 deaths each year. With an estimated 30-50% of the US population set to receive it, expect the media to remain overly hyped on this issue. Also, do not expect any change in pork trade policy with China or the smaller countries which are still banning US pork.
On Thursday Morning the head of the CDC responded to the White House's estimates saying, "Everything we've seen in the U.S. and everything we've seen around the world suggests we won't see that kind of number if the virus doesn't change".
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