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Editor's note: Leslie Gerwin is associate director of the Program in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton University and teaches public health law and policy at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. This article was written in association with the Op-Ed Project, a nonprofit organization that seeks to expand the range of opinion voices to include more women.
(CNN) -- Just as Americans are staring down flu season, Hong Kong grabbed headlines this week with news confirming that a chicken was infected with the H5N1 virus and that many more suspected of harboring the dangerous disease were slaughtered.
In the recent movie "Contagion", Hollywood's version of a pandemic, the government successfully executes a response plan. But our real-life encounter with a pandemic, the H1N1 flu, raises serious questions of whether the American public is prepared for such a crisis.
It should have been good news that the H1N1 epidemic we confronted in 2009-10 was less deadly than feared, but instead, it was used as political leverage. Conservatives, in particular, claimed the vaccination recommendations were overhyped, more "big government" meddling in citizens' lives.
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(CNN) -- Just as Americans are staring down flu season, Hong Kong grabbed headlines this week with news confirming that a chicken was infected with the H5N1 virus and that many more suspected of harboring the dangerous disease were slaughtered.
In the recent movie "Contagion", Hollywood's version of a pandemic, the government successfully executes a response plan. But our real-life encounter with a pandemic, the H1N1 flu, raises serious questions of whether the American public is prepared for such a crisis.
It should have been good news that the H1N1 epidemic we confronted in 2009-10 was less deadly than feared, but instead, it was used as political leverage. Conservatives, in particular, claimed the vaccination recommendations were overhyped, more "big government" meddling in citizens' lives.
..
