ABC News: "Some hospitals have opened drive-thrus and drive-up tent clinics to screen and treat swine flu patients. The idea is to keep infectious people out of regular emergency rooms and away from other sick patients. Hospitals could modify patient rules ” for example, requiring them to give less information during a hectic time ” to quicken access to treatment, with government approval, under the declaration. It also addresses a financial question for hospitals ” reimbursement for treating people at sites not typically approved" (Elliott, 10/25).The New York Times, on credibility issues: "Earlier this month, the government was forced to announce that only about 28 million doses would be available by the end of this month, about 30 percent below the 40 million it had previously predicted. ... [S]ince the outbreak of the H1N1 swine flu occurred in April, federal projections have been consistently and wildly overoptimistic and have had to be ratcheted down several times. As recently as late July, the government was predicting having 160 million doses by this month." "The reasons for the receding estimates start with the fact that the H1N1 virus, known as swine flu, is not growing as fast as expected in the eggs used to produce vaccine. Moreover, some manufacturers did not even know how little they were producing until a vaccine potency test became available around August, federal officials say. Some companies hit bottlenecks in putting the vaccine into vials and syringes" (Pollack and McNeil Jr., 10/25). NPR: "Compared with seasonal flu, young people and children continue to be disproportionately affected by the virus. In the first 11 days of October, one in five kids had influenza-like illness ” fever, cough, fatigue, aches and pains. Since April, there have been 95 confirmed pediatric 2009 H1N1 deaths, and nearly half of them have occurred during September and October, according to the CDC. ... Across the country, dueling concerns persist: Some people worry that they won't have access to the vaccine, while others question the vaccine's safety" (Silberner and Masterson, 10/23).

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