What does it mean that President Obama has declared H1N1 a national emergency?
This is action by the Obama Administration to prepare for and respond to H1N1 cases across the country. According to the White House release, President Obama “declared a national emergency in order to be prepared in the event of a rapid increase in illness across the Nation that may overburden health care resources. This declaration will allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services, if necessary, to temporarily waive certain standard Federal requirements in order to enable U.S. health care facilities to implement emergency operations plans to deal with the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic in the United States.
