Preparing Businesses for the Upcoming Flu Season

Secretary Napolitano joined Secretaries Gary Locke of the Department of Commerce and Kathleen Sebelius of the Department of Health and Human Services this morning to announce new guidelines for businesses in preparation for flu season. The guidelines were released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Secretary Napolitano stated, “Ensuring business continuity is important to our cooperative efforts to keep Americans safe.”

The guidelines stress the importance of frequent hand washing and routine cleaning of common areas. The guidelines also strongly suggest that employers be flexible with sick leave policies, understanding that employees may have to stay home with a sick family member. They also recommend that employers take time to review current sick leave policies with their employees.

More guidelines for employers and families are available online at flu.gov.

Fighting New Flu Strain will take Collective Vigilance

Today, Yahoo News posted an op-ed on H1N1 co-written by Secretary Napolitano, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. In the op-ed, the trio outlines progress on planning for a potential fall resurgence of the H1N1 flu virus, their coordination with local jurisdictions for quick response in case of flu outbreaks, and the importance of proper preventative measures to minimize the spread of the H1N1 virus. An excerpt below:

"Parents should talk to their employers and make child care arrangements in case their kids get sick. And if a school closes, learning shouldn't stop. Schools need to create opportunities to learn online and work with parents to find ways for students to bring textbooks and other resources home. If you're an employer, you should plan to get by with a reduced staff. You don't want an employee who's ill to spread flu in the workplace. If you're a medical provider, you should plan to handle more calls and patient visits. An outbreak will bring people who have flu and people who have flu-related symptoms or concerns into your office. To help people get ready for flu season, we've created a "one-stop" website - www.flu.gov. You'll find tips to prevent, and respond to an outbreak and checklists and fact sheets that will help families, businesses and others get prepared."

Read the full Op-Ed at The Yahoo! News

Guidance for Schools on H1N1

The Secretary just put up a post on the Leadership Journal providing some guidance to schools about H1N1. Check it out.

H1N1 Summit Update

The H1N1 Flu Prepardness Summit wrapped up about an hour ago. Hopefully some of you had the opportunity to watch part of the live-stream. If not, you can check out highlights from the summit, the Twitter feed, and other information on how today's discussion will move things forward on this public health issue at the newly re-launched flu.gov. The bottom line is that we all need to be prepared for flu season. The federal government, in coordination with all our partners, used today as an opportunity to discuss the best options for preparing the public.

President Obama joined the summit via telephone from Italy, underscoring the importance of the discussion and noting the point is to prepare, not to panic:

"And so I won't go through the details of this," the President said. "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."

Check out the President's full remarks at whitehouse.gov.

For those more creatively inclined, there's a new contest for you. Record a public service announcement, in the form of a video response on Youtube to Secretary Sebelius' call for contest entries. If you win, you could be eligible for a $2,500 cash prize.

So, check out the new site to get and stay informed as we get ready for the fall.

Reminder: H1N1 Flu Preparedness Summit Tomorrow

We talked last week about the H1N1 Flu Preparedness Summit happening tomorrow. It's an opportunity for federal, state, local, and tribal governments, as well as our private sector and emergency responder partners to come together and discuss a clear way forward on this public health issue. It's taking place at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland tomorrow.

A new development: The morning portion of the summit will be live-streamed on flu.gov, the new federal source for information on H1N1. Check it out, beginning at 8:30 AM EDT and ending just after 12:00 PM EDT.

The live-stream will include a panel discussion involving Secretary Napolitano, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of Health and Human Services, and Secretary Arne Duncan from the Department of Education. The discussion will be moderated by Governor Martin O'Malley of Maryland.

Tune in!

White House Announces H1N1 Flu Preparedness Summit

At today's White House press briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announced an all-day H1N1 Flu Preparedness Summit, scheduled for next Thursday, July 9th, at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C.

H1N1 now exists in over 100 countries around the world, and experts say that the virus may worsen this fall when the traditional flu season starts in the Northern Hemisphere.

Continued cooperation among all federal departments, as well as with state, local, and tribal governments and medical, academic, and business sectors (yes, all of the above) will be vital as we continue to tackle this national public health issue.

The Flu Preparedness Summit will bring government officials and health professionals, emergency managers and educators, non-profit organizations and business executives, together in one room. They'll have a forum to talk about their lessons learned from H1N1 thus far, and importantly, discuss the next steps in assessing and building on current pandemic plans.
The initial news blitz has largely subsided, but the simple fact remains that H1N1 flu is still with us. We'll keep you up-to-date on the summit, and on the department's continuing role in dealing with H1N1.