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The city's top health official called for an emergency summit of eggheads to develop a vaccine for the new swine flu, which is about to become a global pandemic.
"Probably the most important single thing the federal government can do right now is to get a Manhattan Project-type effort to develop a vaccine," said Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden.
"There's no easy answer to how to make a vaccine safely, quickly and effectively," he said. "It's one of the things that we absolutely need the best people in private industry, the best people in government, the best people from the universities, to be working on intensively."
A swine flu vaccine is - at best - many months away, the Centers for Disease Control says.
So far, the illness that is spreading rapidly in the city and beyond has been as mild as the normal winter flu.
"Basically it looks like regular flu, maybe a little more gastrointestinal, maybe a little more vomiting, but basically it looks like regular flu," Frieden said.
As many as 200 people have died of it in Mexico, but that may be because it is far more widespread there. US officials expect Americans will die too, once the so-far scattered outbreaks in 11 turn into an epidemic.
The Mexican government, which virtually shut down the country today and told everyone but cops to stay home, said they thought the crisis was stabilizing there.
Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said the numbers of patients aren't growing.
The World Health Organization, which warned Wednesday that a pandemic was imminent and called on all nations to get ready, said the number of worldwide confirmed cases doubled to 257.
There are about 113 cases in the United States.
Gov. Paterson said he understood why some people might be skeptical of all the dire official warnings.
"You're talking about a hundred diagnoses in a country of three hundred million people," he said.
"It would seem like overkill. This is why it's not: this is a new strain of a virus."
New viruses are unpredictable, and could become lethal quickly.
"In all likelihood, this is something that will just dissipate in the next couple of weeks," Paterson said.
"However in that rare, rare case that it does not, we want to make sure that we're prepared."
The Department of Health and Human Servives, in a bid to get information out in a calm manner, hosted an odd daytime TV-style webcast. Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano sat in cushy chairs being interviewed by a host who read them emailed questions.
For an hour, they answered questions like 'can my pet get the flu' (no) and dispensed homey wisdom (children should sing Happy Birthday all the way through while washing their hands.)
Read more: "City to push for swine flu vaccine: Calls for Manhattan Project like brain trust to develop vaccine" - http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local...roject_like_brain_trust_.html#ixzz0ECPFbLRn&A
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local..._for_manhattan_project_like_brain_trust_.html
"Probably the most important single thing the federal government can do right now is to get a Manhattan Project-type effort to develop a vaccine," said Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden.
"There's no easy answer to how to make a vaccine safely, quickly and effectively," he said. "It's one of the things that we absolutely need the best people in private industry, the best people in government, the best people from the universities, to be working on intensively."
A swine flu vaccine is - at best - many months away, the Centers for Disease Control says.
So far, the illness that is spreading rapidly in the city and beyond has been as mild as the normal winter flu.
"Basically it looks like regular flu, maybe a little more gastrointestinal, maybe a little more vomiting, but basically it looks like regular flu," Frieden said.
As many as 200 people have died of it in Mexico, but that may be because it is far more widespread there. US officials expect Americans will die too, once the so-far scattered outbreaks in 11 turn into an epidemic.
The Mexican government, which virtually shut down the country today and told everyone but cops to stay home, said they thought the crisis was stabilizing there.
Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said the numbers of patients aren't growing.
The World Health Organization, which warned Wednesday that a pandemic was imminent and called on all nations to get ready, said the number of worldwide confirmed cases doubled to 257.
There are about 113 cases in the United States.
Gov. Paterson said he understood why some people might be skeptical of all the dire official warnings.
"You're talking about a hundred diagnoses in a country of three hundred million people," he said.
"It would seem like overkill. This is why it's not: this is a new strain of a virus."
New viruses are unpredictable, and could become lethal quickly.
"In all likelihood, this is something that will just dissipate in the next couple of weeks," Paterson said.
"However in that rare, rare case that it does not, we want to make sure that we're prepared."
The Department of Health and Human Servives, in a bid to get information out in a calm manner, hosted an odd daytime TV-style webcast. Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano sat in cushy chairs being interviewed by a host who read them emailed questions.
For an hour, they answered questions like 'can my pet get the flu' (no) and dispensed homey wisdom (children should sing Happy Birthday all the way through while washing their hands.)
Read more: "City to push for swine flu vaccine: Calls for Manhattan Project like brain trust to develop vaccine" - http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local...roject_like_brain_trust_.html#ixzz0ECPFbLRn&A
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local..._for_manhattan_project_like_brain_trust_.html