Can the U.S. healthcare system handle a flu pandemic?
A. Our emergency healthcare system suffers from severe crowding on a daily basis, and managing a large number of additional patients will be very challenging. But we have excellent plans at the local, regional, statewide (pdf) and national levels to cope with a pandemic like this. We’ve been preparing for just this scenario for many years. Q. A number of media outlets have reported that “swine flu parties” are growing in popularity. Are these a good idea? A. “Swine flu parties” intentionally expose attendees to people with H1N1 flu so they too will become infected. The idea is that having a mild illness now will give them natural immunity protection in case the virus becomes more deadly in the future. It is not a good idea to participate in these events; anyone with swine flu should avoid close contact with other people.
