WBUR and NPR - On Point with Tom Ashbrook » influenza http://www.onpointradio.org On Point is a live, two-hour morning news-analysis program, produced by WBUR 90.9 and NPR. Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:25:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Swine Flu and Pandemic Fears http://www.onpointradio.org/2009/04/swine-flu-and-pandemic-fears http://www.onpointradio.org/2009/04/swine-flu-and-pandemic-fears#comments Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:00:59 +0000 Stefano Kotsonis http://www.onpointradio.org/?p=14192 Residents wear surgical masks as they exit the subway in Mexico City, Monday, April 27, 2009. Mexico's government is trying to stem the spread of a deadly strain of swine flu as a new work week begins by urging people to stay home Monday if they have any symptoms of the virus believed to have killed more than 100 people. (AP)

Residents wear surgical masks as they exit the subway in Mexico City on Monday, April 27, 2009. (AP)

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1976, Fort Dix, New Jersey. An outbreak of swine flu among military recruits. Washington feared a pandemic. Stepped in big. Immunized 40 million Americans. But the flu just disappeared.

2009, in Mexico, New Zealand, New York, Kansas, Texas, the UK, and now Israel, Spain, and more — swine flu is making big headlines again. Spreading. Killing in Mexico. Moving up the WHO pandemic scale, now to Phase 4 of 6.

Will it roar? Or vanish? And could a flu born in warm Mexico spread right through the summer?

This hour, On Point: The science and threat of the swine flu outbreak, 2009.

You can join the conversation. Are you double-washing your hands yet? Have you been traveling — maybe catching, or worried that you’ve caught this new virus? And what questions do you still have, after all the reporting, the calls of alarm and for calm? Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Mexico City is Victor Hugo Michel, special affairs reporter for Milenio, one of the biggest national dailies in Mexico.

From San Antonio, we’re joined by Don Finley, medical reporter San Antonio Express-News. He’s covering the swine flu investigation in Guadalupe County.

Joining us from Atlanta is Dr. Joe Bresee, M.D., chief of epidemiology and prevention in the Influenza Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  

From Washington we’re joined by Dr. Michael Greger, M.D., director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States. An expert on animal-to-human diseases, he’s author of “Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching.”

And from New York we’re joined by Delthia Ricks, health reporter for Newsday and author of “100 Questions & Answers About Influenza.”

More links:

The CDC website offers information on the swine flu, including questions and answers on symptoms, treatment, and prevention.

In this CDC video, Dr. Bresee talks about the swine flu, its symptoms, transmission, and treatment:

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