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Swine Flu Outbreak

Aired April 25, 2009 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm scared I'm going to get infected and hopefully I won't.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think everybody should know about this because it's a very serious thing.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Texas health authorities move quickly to stop swine flu. They shut down this San Antonio area high school after students fall ill. The World Health Organization warns the strain of swine flu could spread quickly. I will talk live with an agency spokesman. What about the symptoms of swine flu? I'll give you the list. We have your e-mails in this special hour of CNN NEWSROOM.

Hello again, I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Two big stories are evolving this hour. A manhunt near a major university campus. Three people shot and killed. The suspect? A professor.

Plus deadly swine flu said to have pandemic potential. It's the kind of story that can change on a dime. Right now, we are waiting for the latest word from the U.S. health officials and we're also devoting the next entire hour to bring proactive solutions for you. A better understanding of what swine flu is. We are also answering many of your questions that you are sending to us in so many different ways about the swine flu.

All right. U.S. health officials stress there is no reason to panic about swine flu. But people at risk who have the symptoms should see a doctor. They are flu-like symptoms. And those symptoms include a high fever, 101 or 102, overwhelming fatigue, a lack of appetite, and coughing.

Swine flu is a strain of influenza that is usually found in pigs. Typically people get it after coming into direct contact with an infected animal. Although with this particular strain, officials say it appears there may be some person to person transmission. You cannot get swine flu by eating pork.

All right. In New York, officials are taking extra precautions to make sure that an illness sickened dozens of students at a Queens high school isn't swine flu. CNN's Susan Candiotti is outside St. Francis Prep School. And Susan, what can you tell us about the test that have been conducted on some of these students?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, we have now moved over to the New York City health department where we can report to you that at any moment they will begin a news conference here to give us the latest information about what has happened. We can tell you this. That after taking oral and nasal swaps from nine high school students at Saint Francis Preparatory High School in Queens, they tested positive for type A flu.

Now this means at least open the possibility that swine flu is involved, but what's happening now is that those samples have been sent to the Centers for Disease Control, the CDC, in Atlanta for what is called subtyping. To determine for sure whether swine flu is involved. This all started on Friday when a number of students, as many as 100 were reported sick to the school. A number of them were lined up at the school nurse's office and a school contacted the health department and they in turn sent people over to the school on Friday.

And that's when they took the swabs from nine sick students at the school. Six students, oral and nasal swabs. And the testing was conducted. Now, you might wonder what has the school done in the meantime? Well, the school has begun scrubbing down the walls, the classrooms, the desks, sanitizing the entire school. And we understand that they did cancel an event at the school on Friday night.

However for now they are going to continue with a plan, a reunion dinner that was scheduled to take place at the school this evening and for now as well, classes will begin on Monday again as usual. So any time now as soon as the health commissioner comes in for New York City, Dr. Thomas Freiden, we will take that news conference live. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: OK. Susan Candiotti, thanks so much. Concerns in New York. There are also concerns in Texas and California. And the White House is also monitoring the situation. We are going to try and travel to all these places to get the concern about the swine flu. Thanks so much, Susan.

All right. So let's talk about public health officials in Texas. They have shut down a high school in suburban San Antonio. Two students there tested positive for swine flu earlier this month but recovered. A third student is considered a probable case. Tiffany Wong of CNN affiliate, KABB, in San Antonio talked to the boy's family.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TIFFANY WONG, REPORTER, KABB (voice-over): It was not school as usual at Byron Steele High School. Word spread fast that two 16-year-old students had contracted swine flu. The third case Hayden Henshaw is confined to his home.

PATRICK HENSHAW, SON HAS SWINE FLU: The health department came and asked 15 pages of questions and I guess they take it all back to see if everybody interacted somewhere.

WONG: It's not clear how Hayden got the swine flu. The health department wouldn't tell the family if Hayden knew the two other boys who were infected. Some students are concerned. TAYLOR SCHULMEYER, STEELE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: I am scared I will get infected. Hopefully I won't.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think everybody should know about this. This is very serious.

WONG: Parents got calls on Thursday from school officials confirming two students did have swine flu. Lisa Haage admitted she kept her daughter home from school just to be safe.

LISA HAAGE, CONCERNED PARENT: They tell you not to panic, but you do.

WONG: Hayden's father said his son has all the classic symptoms of the flu. Fever, body aches, but it just didn't go away.

HENSHAW: He has been sick this week and just kept getting worse and worse.

WONG: Hayden and his mother were at the doctor when Patrick got the call from school.

HENSHAW: Called my wife and asked to get him checked for the swine flu and that's when they did and he tested positive.

WONG: The doctor put a mask on Hayden and called the health department. Hayden's family were speechless.

HENSHAW: It's done and my wife was like having a panic attack.

WONG: None of the other people infected in the U.S. had been in contact with pigs which is usually how people catch swine flu. The Center for Disease Control said they are doing all they can to keep everyone informed.

DR. RICHARD BESSER, CDC: We don't know if this virus or another virus will lead to the next pandemic.

WONG: As for the Henshaw family, they are just hoping no one else in their family will test positive.

HENSHAW: They said that some people that are around the people who have this get a mild version of like a cold or something.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: President Obama is being kept up to date on this flu outbreak. CNN's Elaine Quijano is at the White House. So Elaine, what are you hearing from the president?

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that the president as you said has been briefed about this and he's getting his updates from both health and Homeland Security staff on the continuing developments and the situation. Now, the president himself does not have any public events on his schedule today. However, our CNN cameras were able to capture images of him as he was on the White House campus today leaving as you see there, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

Now White House officials have not told us exactly what he was doing over there, whether or not it might have been related to the swine flu situation. But as this continues to develop, we did talk to former Homeland Security advisor Fan Townsend who is now a CNN contributor and she said what is going to be key right now for the Obama administration is communicating to the American public. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRAN TOWNSEND, FMR. HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISOR: Communicating facts, you know talking to people about what you know, what you don't know, and what are the kinds of things that you are looking for that will be indicators of a pandemic or a health outbreak and giving people practical information about what they can expect and what they can do to make the best decisions for their families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, Townsend also said she believes the Mexican government is doing the right thing by practicing what she is calling social distancing. Ant hat is Fredricka, basically the Mexican government is trying to curb any kind of large public gathering in Mexico for the next 10 days or so. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: All right. Elaine Quijano, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Well, you may wonder if the government is indeed prepared for a worldwide epidemic. Later on this hour, we will talk more to Fran Townsend who took part in the pandemic exercise when President George W. Bush was in office.

And we know you have questions as well. So we're going to be getting some of your questions on the air as it pertains to swine flu, what is it and why is it impacting Mexico the way it is as well as the U.S.

So let's talk about Mexico a little bit more, Mexico City in particular. Health officials closed schools and universities in a bid to stop the spread of the deadly virus. All public events have also been suspended for the next 10 days. Travelers from Mexico City report seeing people on the street wearing face masks before catching flight out of the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Schools are closed today from kindergarten to universities. So the city was quiet today and it seems that it's not only Mexico City.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. People with travel plans to Mexico City, take note. Mexicana Airlines is posting this letter on its website concerning the flu outbreak. The airline is offering international passengers who are either traveling to Mexico City or connecting through its airport the option of canceling. Mexicana said there are some conditions, but anyone canceling between April 24th and 30th won't be charged cancellation fees.

All right. A number of things going on here. The World Health Organization will soon be talking about it. We know the C.D.C. as well and now the New York Health Department is talking about swine flu and the recent tests that have been conducted on up to 75 students in New York, in Queens, in particular.

THOMAS FRIEDEN, NEW YORK HEALTH COMMISSIONER: ... absent presumably because of illness. We have spoken with more than 100 of the children or families and in every single case, the illness was mild. Many of the children are feeling better. No child has been hospitalized. No child was seriously ill.

Last evening before kids went home and in one local doctor's office, we were able to obtain specimens from nine students at the school. We sent those to our public health laboratory. Today we are confirming that that laboratory has identified those specimens, eight of those nine specimens as probable human swine influenza. The confirmatory testing must be done at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and the specimens are en route to Atlanta now.

Testing is a little complicated. So let me just spend a minute on it. And in the press packet that you get shortly, there is a diagram that explains this. If someone has symptoms of influenza, fever with cough or sore throat, they have what is called influenza-like illness. We then can do a rapid test to determine whether or not they have influenza. If they do, it can be type A or type B. If it's type A, we see what the subtype is. If we cannot determine the subtype with the testing methods that we have, that is considered a probable case of human swine influenza. That is what we have determined.

I realized that may not be very clear, but there is a diagram that tries to make it clear. The confirmatory testing is expected to be available tomorrow from C.D.C., what's concerning about this is first it is likely swine flu. Second, that at this time it is spreading from person to person. We don't know if it will continue spreading from person to person. So just because it spread once with successive generations, sometimes with infections, you see more, less, or the same level of infectiousness. So it is spreading now from person to person. We do not know whether that will be sustained.

In the cases that we have seen as well as cases from elsewhere in the U.S., we have seen a very short incubation period. So from the time you are exposed to the time you got sick was only one, two, or three days. And of course, as you all know in Mexico we are very concerned about the number of people who appear to be severely ill from this strain or strain very much like this. There are however some reassuring aspects. The fact that so far every person we have identified has mild symptoms and the fact that it is what is called an H1 strain so it may have some similarity with strains to which we have already been exposed and may have some immunity to.

Now, I'm going to now tell you what we are doing about it. The first thing we are doing is to identify possible cases starting with the school. So we got the specimens from kids at the school. We have spoken with all hospitals in New York City by conference call yesterday afternoon and we will be speaking with them today again in the afternoon to encourage them, to identify patients with severe respiratory symptoms who may have this infection.

We have also sent an alert out to physicians throughout New York City and we will be sending an update out a little later this afternoon with information on who to test and how to treat and to whom to give preventive treatment. We also check our syndromic surveillance system. We check more than 60,000 health events every day of the year to see if there any patterns suggesting widespread outbreaks in New York City.

This system has seen New York City's cases decline gradually as in most flu years, flu seasons over the past month or two and we have seen no recent increase citywide in flu-like cases. We will monitor that every 12 hours until we are comfortable that the situation is stabilized. We will continue working with hospitals to identify people with serious respiratory illness to see whether there is any increase in such patients and to ensure that they are rapidly tested for influenza.

We have worked with the school Friday night, last night they had a planned large event that would have had close to 1,000 people there. We worked with them and they postponed that event. It was a student performance. We postponed that event because of the concern that when large numbers of people get together, there is a possibility of a rapid spread of infection, in the context of an outbreak. We will look at the C.D.C. testing tomorrow and if that testing confirms that it is swine flu, we will likely recommend that the school not reopen on Monday out of an abundance of caution.

We would then reassess the situation day to day to see which direction to go. You could say all you got is a lot of kids with mild illness. Why close a school? On the other hand, it is important to say that schools can be an area where not only can students become ill, but can be an area for amplifying or spreading infection. So out of an abundance of caution, if the C.D.C. testing confirms this, we are likely to recommend that the school not reopen on Monday and we would then reassess the situation day by day.

For students, staff at the school, if there people who are seriously ill requiring hospitalization and then treatment with one of the effective anti-viral agents is important. The two anti-viral agents that are likely to be effective or we believe maybe effective in this strain are Tamiflu and Relenza. For people who are not seriously ill and do not have an underlying illness such as diabetes or heart disease, the elderly or the very young, it does not appear that treatment would be mandatory at this time, but anyone with an underlying condition who is ill.

Anyone with severe illness should be treated. Anyone who has had illness for more than 48 hours is unlikely to benefit from treatment. And anyone who is already improving is unlikely to benefit from treatment. For people who are close household contacts of cases at the school, treatment to prevent them from developing influenza again with either Tamiflu or Relenza would be important if they have an underlying condition such as again pregnancy, diabetes, immunocompromised for the very young or very old.

These are complicated issues. These are risks and benefits of treatment and of preventive treatment. These recommendations may change as we learn more about this particular strain of influenza. In Mexico, there is a different pattern of people becoming ill. That pattern needs to be further understood so that we can help monitor to see if that occurs here. All medications can have adverse effects and resistance can develop.

For the general public, there a few key messages. When you cough, cover your mouth. Very, very important. That is the main way influenza spreads. When you cough or sneeze, cover your mouth. If you are sick, stay home. If you got a fever and a cough, stay home. That helps you get better and it prevents you from spreading the disease to others. You shouldn't go to work, you shouldn't go to school. If you are not very sick and you wouldn't have gone to the hospital if you hadn't heard about this announcement, don't go to the hospital now. There is no reason to.

If you are very sick and if you are having trouble breathing, if you would have gone to the hospital anyway, by all means go to the hospital. But one of the problems that we have already seen in this area of Queens was lots of people with very mild illness converging on the local hospital, and making it very difficult for the hospital to treat those who are sicker, not from this inflection, in this case, but who may be sicker and who require treatment.

And you cannot get swine flu from eating pork. Nationally and internationally it's very important that we better understand the situation, particularly in Mexico that we determine whether there are outbreaks in other parts of the country and other parts of the world. And at the national and international level begin to discuss issues of vaccine production which are complicated and relate to both next year's flu season and whatever may occur in the coming days, weeks, and months.

The situation is fluid. We are sharing with you all of the information we have up until now. And we will continue to share that information regularly, we are in close contact with the state of New York and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and we're working to try to ensure that we provide a consistent set of messages and we appreciate the interest and responsibility of members of the press in conveying that information to the public. So thank you very and I'll be happy to answer some questions.

WHITFIELD: Interesting and important information coming from the New York Health commissioner Thomas Frieden there, saying that of the some 75 or so students there in the Queens borough of New York who have been tested for exposure to swine flu. It appears that eight, maybe even nine student specimens have probable swine flu.

And they are now going to - they have now sent some of those specimens on to the C.D.C. and it's our understanding according to the health commissioner here that confirmatory testing will take place tomorrow from the C.D.C.. So perhaps we'll all learn a little bit more about that. And we are also getting this information, confirmation now from the Kansas State health officer who is saying there are now two confirmed cases of swine flu in Kansas.

So we know about the information in Texas and California. There were eight confirmed swine cases but we understand that all of those patients recovered. Now you got the New York element from the health commissioner there saying that there are probable swine cases, possibly eight maybe nine students and those confirmatory testing results may come as early as tomorrow from the C.D.C. and now we are talking about Kansas.

We understand from the health officer the state health officer there are two confirmed cases of swine flu. So we're going to delve into what is swine flu. What does it really mean and how important is this for this country's health and we're also going to be hearing from the World Health Organization which is overseeing the investigation worldwide. We know that Mexico has confirmed cases now and the U.S. and earlier in a conversation with one of the communications directors for the World Health Organization. It's his view that just the U.S. and Mexico are now dealing with this.

Of course, we also want to hear from you. We are fielding your questions and that we are going to be posing to a number of our experts that are going to be joining us from the W.H.O. and even our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen.

So much more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. We're devoting this hour now to swine flu. The World Health Organization is closely monitoring the swine flu outbreak. It's director Dr. Margaret Chin says it is a serious situation that could become a pandemic.

Joining me by phone is Gregory Hartl, he is the World Health Organization's communications director. Good to hear from you, Mr. Hartl. So New York is saying just to reiterate moments ago the health commissioner saying that eight, maybe even nine students specimens have probable swine flu and now confirmation from the Kansas state health officer confirming that two swine flu cases now are being closely monitored. Express to me your concern about the travels of this swine flu when it first seemed it was along the border states between Mexico and the U.S. and now apparently it may be much deeper than that.

VOICE OF GREGORY HARTL, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: Well, yes, obviously even before it spread south of the border state, so all the way down through Mexico City and we see that in the middle of Mexico and then on the Mexican side of the California border. So it was already of concern to us that it was in four or five different locations, in Mexico and in the southern United States. So this news of Kansas and New York is amplifying or reinforcing the concern we have that the spread of this virus appears to be quite wide and it could potentially be a pandemic virus.

WHITFIELD: What would determine a pandemic virus? HARTL: A pandemic virus has to spread easily from human to human. And I know you were speaking in previous segments about the fact that the virus over a number of generations have spread from human to human to human to human can either gain or lose its virulence or can stay the same. And obviously the more it spreads with substantial effect the more pandemic danger it has.

WHITFIELD: OK. What's different about this swine flu now? Has it always been the case that swine flu while it may have been a type of influenza specifically for pigs, was the concern for a long time that people who come into contact with pigs with this virus would contract this swine flu. And is it the case now that it has mutated such that you don't have to have contact with pigs in order to now contract this virus? Or be exposed to the virus?

HARTL: You know, it's not the first time that people have contracted influenza from pigs. You know, some people will remember the swine flu in the United States in the 1970s. But any time there is a virus which changes and this virus, this swine flu virus has a different genetic make up from previous swine flu viruses. It means that perhaps the immunities that the human body has built up to dealing with influenza might be not adaptable enough to dealing with this new virus. And consequently and what we see in Mexico is that the great majority of people who have been confirmed with this infection from the swine flu virus are otherwise healthy young adults.

And that is one of the pieces of the puzzle which that is worrying for us. In the United States, the great majority people are younger and the illness has been mild. In Mexico, apparently the same virus is affecting otherwise young and healthy adults with sometimes much more severe illness.

WHITFIELD: And Gregory Hartl, if I could just ask you real quick, the "Associated Press" is reporting that the World Health Organization have declared the swine flu outbreak in North America "a public health emergency of international concern. The decision means countries around the world will be asked to step up reporting and surveillance of the disease implicated in dozens of human deaths in Mexico and at least eight non-fatal cases in the U.S." is in any way you talk about how now the concern is much more amplified. Is it even more so upon reading this "Associated Press" report or have you already heard the W.H.O. classified it in this way, a public health emergency of international concern?

HARTL: Well, certainly. This is a legal instrument which we use in order to work more closely and let's say on a heightened area of alert with all our member countries of W.H.O.

WHITFIELD: OK.

HARTL: So obviously we have seen a lot of cases in Mexico and the United States. Now we are asking all countries to look out specifically for influenza-like illness which is out of the ordinary. So in healthy young adults or normal influenza season, we need to know if this virus has gone beyond Mexico and the United States.

WHITFIELD: Gregory Hartl of the World Health Organization, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it.

So when it comes to outbreak of disease, the U.S. government is always preparing for a crisis of this magnitude. Well, now those plans could actually be put to the test. CNN's national security contributor Frances Townsend took part in these exercise as a member of the administration of George W. Bush. She is joining us now from Washington with more on this.

So based on your experience, how is the White House going to handle this situation given what the World Health Organization is saying? Given what the New York health commissioner is saying? And now the Kansas state health officer?

TOWNSEND: Well, Fredricka, we are in what the World Health Organization calls the pandemic alert period. That means there is a number of activities going on inside the U.S. government that we haven't seen on the outside yet.

I imagine things like the State Department, if they haven't already, will put travel advisory in place relating to Mexico warning Americans traveling there of this health outbreak. You will see the Department of Homeland Security will look to whether or not they want to declare this an incident of what we call national significance. Given the potential for the probable cases in New York, the two in Kansas, as well as Texas and California, this is taking on a national significance.

WHITFIELD: Are you seeing this as a prelude to quarantine?

TOWNSEND: Well, I think it's too soon for us to say quarantine. I spoke earlier with Elaine about social distancing. We have seen in Mexico, they have canceled for the next 10 days public gatherings, school. That's the sort of social distancing techniques that we know from studying the pandemic of 1918, which you spoke to our viewers about, to be very effective.

And so you will look -- cities will now and local communities will look to whether or not they want to put those measures in place until we get a better understanding.

The other thing they will begin to do, Fredricka, is look at prioritization for anti-virals. This is a virus that tends to be amenable to things like Tamiflu and Relenza. And so you look at health workers, law enforcement personnel, critical infrastructure personnel, getting that as a prophylaxis, to protect them so they can continue to operate in their community.

WHITFIELD: And won't it now be a huge concern for health and human services or the surgeon general, whomever, to make sure that we have a pretty substantial supply of Tamiflu or Relenza?

TOWNSEND: Well absolutely and in fact, the good news here is we have a national stock pile. One of the things that people are no doubt discussing inside the administration now is -- there is also an international stock pile. One of the things you want to do is help your allies around the world so that you can limit the outbreak there so it's not as bad here. So they will be both looking at the national stockpile and the distribution and international stockpile contributions and I imagine that's going on now.

But we will need to start hearing from the administration about what they're doing and who in the president's cabinet will have responsibility for coordinating across the government.

WHITFIELD: Well, it seems to have snuck up on the general public, but is it your view that perhaps the White House had a heads up about this or has known about this for some time? And as opposed to them learning it as we the public are learning of it.

TOWNSEND: Well one would hope that they would explain to us when they understood this. But this has been going on for weeks in Mexico. I expect that prior to the president's travel, he and his staff were briefed by the White House doctor about what was going on. And I imagine they have been monitoring it straight along. But it will because of the U.S. outbreaks now in the different cities, it's time for us to hear from the administration about what they are doing and what we can expect to see.

WHITFIELD: And is your concern now too just as we heard from the New York health commissioner says, wait a minute, if you are starting to feel better or you feel like you may have some of these symptoms, it doesn't mean you have to rush to the hospital now. But is it your concern that people generally when they hear about something they are somewhat unfamiliar with, they do panic and they will start flooding these hospitals, making it much more difficult to treat people who are severe cases.

TOWNSEND: What people should focus on though is we are not seeing the virulence of the strain that they are seeing in Mexico. We haven't fortunately seen deaths in this country. It seems that people get sick quickly from the onset and they recover pretty quickly. And because anti-virals seem to be effective, there is less reason thus far from what we know of the facts for people to panic. They've got just got to be alert and we want people to report to the public health officials if they have symptoms so we can begin to track this more effectively.

WHITFIELD: And what are the parameters that we would expect the White House to actually expound on, what they knew and when they knew it, as it pertains to this. We already heard from our White House correspondent, Elaine Quijano, at the top of the hour.

The question has been asked to the White House, did you know of these cases in Mexico before the president actually traveled there? Still not any real coherent, complete answers on that. But what obligation does the White House have to reveal when they have learned about what is taking place, health matters in Mexico as opposed to the active cases in New York and now Kansas, in Texas and California.

TOWNSEND: I think it will be important just from a credibility standpoint. As you pointed out, what we don't want people to do is panic. And the greatest way to give the American people confidence is to tell them the facts as you understand them and to tell them what it is you are doing about it.

And so I really do think that there is a group that will be dealing with this both in the White House and across the federal government that involves all the agencies, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and the State Department.

And I think the way to give people confidence is to be transparent and explain what you know, when you learned it and what confidence you have in the information and then you can talk about what you are doing about it.

WHITFIELD: All right, Fran Townsend, thanks so much for your time, appreciate it.

All right, perhaps the question of the day, what are the symptoms the swine flu? We know you are still trying to wrap your hands around what is it exactly and why are we hearing of it now and what's with so much concern? We'll be asking our senior medical correspondent your questions.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. We are devoting this hour to swine flu because it hit many of us like a ton of bricks just within the past 48 hours. So what are the symptoms? We are going to delve into that right now. As we mentioned, 68 people have died of a flu virus in Mexico. And of those, 20 are confirmed swine flu cases.

Well here in the U.S., eight people came down with swine flu, but all have actually recovered. Just what is swine flu and what are the symptoms?

Joining us now with some important information on all of this, senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen to help us understand this because swine flu and now regular influenza, there are a lot of commonalities. But the end result isn't always the same.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, they look a lot alike and I think that's going to be the big challenge for some doctors in this country right now. If Mrs. Smith shows up with these symptoms, do you send her to the CDC or send a sample to the CDC and say test this for swine flu?

Let's go over some of these symptoms. They will sound very familiar. I mean, you don't start oinking. There's nothing that screams swine flu here. Fever, cough, sore throat, body aches and headaches. Those are some of the symptoms. And also chills, fatigue, diarrhea and vomiting.

So it's very interesting to me that the CDC in a press conference this afternoon said, "We are now going to be finding more of these cases because we are looking for them." So for example if this was three or four days ago, someone would have those symptoms and they would just you know, basically say two aspirin and call me in the morning or whatever.

Where as now, they're going to say, hey, maybe we ought to be testing you for swine flu. So we have been hearing about more cases from Kansas, some probable cases from New York. I think we should expect much more and more of this in the coming days.

WHITFIELD: Oh, interesting. Well a lot of people have been sending in all kinds of questions and comments about this because really people want to know. They feel like this is fairly foreign even though we know this has been around for decades. But now folks are talking about affecting them not necessarily just to the pig community.

COHEN: Because it's never been in numbers like this in the United States. You have seen maybe one case, two cases, three cases, not like 10 cases at once like we're seeing right now.

WHITFIELD: So with those questions and those comments, our Josh Levs has been fielding a number of them coming to us via Facebook, weekends@CNN.com and you too now Twittering. Josh, what are people asking about and what do they want to know from Elizabeth?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They want to know some big things. I will tell you, first of all I think we've answered several dozen questions between the news conference and the interviews so far. So that's really good news.

A couple specifically for Elizabeth. We're going to zoom in. Elizabeth, Karen has this question for you. "If you were vaccinated for flu in the fall are you protected at all from this strain of swine flu? If you were not vaccinated in the fall, would it be beneficial to be vaccinated now?"

COHEN: All right Josh, so I asked that question of an infectious disease expert. And I looked on the CDC Web site. The CDC Web site says no. If you got a shot in the fall, that's not going to help. The expert that I talked to disagreed a little bit. He said it's kind of an open question. If you have received flu shots in the past, it may give you some protection against this swine flu virus because what's fascinating about this new virus, it's actually four viruses put together.

It's four different viruses, so it's possible that a shot in the past maybe would protect you from one of those four elements and that might help your body resist the flu.

LEVS: You're talking about the past and that's very interesting because I have a follow-up here for you which comes to us from Michael who writes "I am old enough to have gotten a swine flu shot in the Ford administration. Does this mean that I am vaccinated against the disease, or is this a different strain?" Would that kind of previous vaccination a long time ago help?

COHEN: All right, well first let's talk about what happened back in the '70s, Josh. This is according to the CDC. There was a swine flu outbreak at Fort Dix, New Jersey, in 1976. More than 200 people ill, some of them very seriously. But I asked Doctor William Schaffner, he's an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University, would it have helped to have gotten a shot back then? And he said, probably not. One, it was so long ago and two, this new virus is probably quite different.

LEVS: OK, well we're going to keep those questions coming. We're going to get some more answers and a thanks for those.

WHITFIELD: That's right, we still have about 20 minutes left to answer all of your questions and inquires about what the heck is swine flu. So to help find out more about swine flu in other ways and the cases in the U.S. and Mexico, log on to CNNHealth.com. More special coverage coming up next. Understanding swine flu, why is this so different?

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WHITFIELD: All right, we continue to monitor the situation with the swine flu outbreak. Among those who has recently been in Mexico where they are undergoing major swine flu outbreaks, the president of the United States. Well in a statement just being released to us, White House officials saying President Barack Obama has had no flu-like symptoms since his trip to Mexico last week and said White House officials are not concerned about the president's health. But we know that you are concerned about yours. We are going to be joined coming up next by an expert on influenza.

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WHITFIELD: A flu pandemic happened has before in 1918. A deadly flu outbreak swept across the U.S. and the world. Tens of millions of people died. John Barry is an award-winning author whose book, "The Great Influenza" is about that deadly pandemic. He joins us now from New Orleans. And so John, I don't know if you heard the WHO representative that we had a little bit earlier and he says the cases whether it's the eight or nine probable swine flu cases in New York and now the two confirmed Kansas cases certainly does amplify or reinforce their concern. Are we on a path to a pandemic?

JOHN BARRY, AUTHOR: Well unfortunately it certainly looks like we are on a path there. It's still theoretically possible anyway that a pandemic does not develop, but right now I think the potential is very real. And frankly we are close. That does not mean however --

WHITFIELD: And why is it? Does it stop it at this point from getting really out of control, just blossoming too much?

BARRY: Well right now, it's up to the virus itself. I don't think there is much that any government can do to intervene. It's conceivable that the virus gets weaker and weaker as it passes from one person to another.

WHITFIELD: But is it not encouraging to hear from the New York Health commissioner who says Tamiflu and Relenza are certainly anti-viral agents that can help slow if not stop or treat people who have been exposed to this virus. BARRY: That is extremely encouraging. And it's a good thing that five or six years ago, we started stockpiling that.

WHITFIELD: And we heard that reinforced by Fran Townsend who was once with Homeland Security. So she says we have a stockpile. So I hear this very encouraging news from Fran Townsend. I hear this very encouraging news from the New York health commissioner. Why should I be worried?

BARRY: That is not an answer. You know, unfortunately what that does is mitigate symptoms and some people even if they take it will likely progress. I think the key here is really going to be the virus itself. We have had four pandemics that we know about in detail. One of them was very, very lethal, 1918. One of them was relatively mild, 1968, although even that would probably kill close to 100,000 Americans, if that mild virus struck.

WHITFIELD: So what do we do with this information as American citizens now hearing about these interesting cases now that are being further examined by the CDC, and now the World Health Organization? What can we all do to be more responsible to try to ward off by swine flu? Protect ourselves, protect our children, our elderly, against it?

BARRY: Well, you don't really need to do anything until it arrives in your community. Assuming if it does get there, if it does become a pandemic virus, it will hit different communities at different times. It will pass through a particular area in a period of generally to eight weeks. When it first arrives in your community, then you should -- the social distancing that you've already heard about, definitely stay home if you are sick. Washing hands and covering up when you cough.

WHITFIELD: And cover up when you cough and sneeze. John Barry, award winning author of "The Great Influenza." Thanks so much for joining us from New Orleans.

BARRY: You're welcome.

WHITFIELD: Your concerns about swine flu after this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These designer duds aren't exactly what they seem. The clothes you see here are bulletproof. Yes, you heard right - bulletproof. They're created by Colombia-based designer Miguel Caballero. You could call him, "the Armani of armor."

MIGUEL CABALLERO, DESIGNER: Let me show this. This one I prefer to this one. This one is special for me. That is Italian leather.

FEYERICK: Caballero says his clientele include state executives and celebrities who need to stay safe without sacrificing comfort and appearance. CABALLERO: Our customers aren't sure what protection they would need. We actually say these panels have been actually shot in to with all of these different kinds of guns.

FEYERICK: His lightweight, flexible and fashionable clothes even caught the eye of Harrods Department Store in London.

NICK CHALKLEY, GENERAL MERCHANDISE MANAGER, HARRODS: Miguel has the irony of catwalk collection in the world. And we decided to work with him because lots of customers hate being contacted or by appointment service, personal shopping service.

FEYERICK: But for bullet-dodging VIPs, protection comes at a price. Caballero's clothes can cost up to $10,000 an item.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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WHITFIELD: Quickly, other places to channel your questions about swine flu, Josh?

LEVS: Great hour, Fred. You know, I could tell you, I was just doing some math, I think we could safely say we got more than 50 of our viewers questions answered with the information throughout the hour. We have a bunch of Web sites that can help you get even more information. I'm going to post them right now at our Facebook page. It's Josh Levs CNN, Fredricka Whitfield CNN and we'll take the rest of your weekend, pass them on in NEWSROOM throughout the weekend.

WHITFIELD: Excellent, we're here to help. Thanks so much, Josh Levs. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Don Lemon is up next in the NEWSROOM.

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