Photo Credit: Reuters Pictures: William Harris grimaces as he receives a swine flu vaccination at a public clinic in Milwaukee, Wisconsin October 23. 2009. With a national shortage of the vaccine the City of Milwaukee Health Department has less than 7,000 doses of the vaccine available on a first come first served basis, local media sources report.

President Barack Obama has declared the outbreak of the swine flu a national emergency.

A proclamation was signed Friday, October 23, 2009 that would allow medical officials to “bypass certain federal requirements.”

This move is considered to different from “declaration ahead of a hurricane making landfall.” The declaration is intended to prepare the U.S. in case of “a rapid increase in illness that may overburden health care resources”

I guess that’s supposed to calm us down.

So far 100 children have died from the H1N1, or swine flu, virus. It has also cause 1,000 U.S. deaths so far and is in 46 of the 50 U.S. states.

The seasonal flu usually hits between late November and early March.

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