The vaccines are designed to blunt the effect of a flu virus that, starting this fall, could infect 100 million people in the USA and cause 30,000 to 90,000 deaths based on scenarios drawn from past pandemics, says Arnold Monto of the University of Michigan, an adviser to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. About 36,000 people in the USA die each year of flu.  7d 23h ago By Erica Werner, The Associated Press  Congress' longest-serving member and a fierce health care advocate vowed Friday to push ahead with Democratic-led efforts to extend coverage to all, saying he won't be intimidated by protesters who disrupted his town-hall meetings.  Swine flu is expected to return when kids go back to school, and the government is hoping its new advice on when to shut down schools during an outbreak will prevent the panic and confusion that led to hundreds of school closures last spring.  Schools across the USA should close this fall only if "high numbers" of students come down with the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, top federal officials said Friday.  Health care reform was initially stalled by concerns over who would pay for covering millions of the uninsured, but now forces long involved in social issues have jumped vigorously into the debate. c  A national focus on childhood obesity is "overdue," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday at a government meeting.  A strong force, perhaps as powerful in Congress as President Obama, is keeping the drive for health care reform going even as liberal and conservative Democrats seem hopelessly at odds.  Administration officials defended President Obama's broad health care proposals on Sunday and urged a skeptical public not to judge the Democrats' overhaul until Congress writes a final version.  President Obama on Monday nominated for surgeon general Regina Benjamin, an influential rural family physician who has spent the past two decades caring for a poor shrimping community along the Gulf Coast.  The Obama administration put U.S. states on notice Thursday: Swine flu promises to create a mess this fall. Are you ready?
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