Brown bill to fight H1N1
Wapakoneta Daily News – A U.S. Congressman wants to add a public policy arrow to the national health care quiver.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, of Ohio, co-sponsored legislation this week to guarantee paid sick days for those who are infected by the H1N1 as part of a larger overall national policy to combat the spread of the virus.
Brown, who held a media teleconference Thursday, said he talked with Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Dr. Alvin Jackson, director of the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) regarding the best ways to curb the spread of the virus, to educate Ohioans and to better distribute the H1N1 vaccine.
“We are all aware of the challenges involved with the spread of H1N1 and the concerns that we read about the concerns regardng the distribution of the vaccine,” Brown said. “We recognize that combatting such a quickly spreading virus requires close coordination between state and federal governments.
“The administration, ODH and CDC have been working around the clock to get the vaccine out as quickly as possible,” he said.
Frieden said 52 million doses of the vaccine are now available for ordering. Ohio has received 1.6 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine and is projected to receive a total of 6.9 million doses.
Population estimates for the state have the top priority group in Ohio at more than 5.4 million. Ohio’s overall population is approximately 11 million.
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