Assembly holding Special Flu hearing Monday

by: Jason Springer

Sun May 03, 2009 at 06:10:37 PM EDT

It's time to talk about the flu. The Assembly will convene a special hearing that will be a joint meeting of the Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee and the Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee on Monday at 11 a.m. with a long lists of guests are expected to attend:

Heather Howard, New Jersey Health and Senior Services Commissioner;
Richard L. Cañas, Director, New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness;
Lucille Davy, New Jersey Education Commissioner;
Ernesto Butcher, Chief Operating Office, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey;
Dr. Susan Walsh, New Jersey Deputy Health and Senior Services Commissioner, Public Health Services;
David Gruber, New Jersey Senior Assistant Health and Senior Services Commissioner, Health Infrastructure Preparedness and Emergency Response;
New Jersey State Police Lt. Col. Jerome Hatfield, Deputy Superintendent of Homeland Security;
Gerald Zernotica, New Jersey Assistant Education Commissioner, Division of Finance;
Pam Castellanos, New Jersey Department of Education, Executive Assistant. Division of Field Services;
Anthony Bland, New Jersey Department of Education, state coordinator for school safety.

Here's what the co-chairs had to say about why they convened the joint meeting:

"This hearing will hopefully alleviate some of the public's concerns about the H1N1 flu and what it means to New Jerseyans," said Assemblyman Herb Conaway. "The public must feel confident that New Jersey is ready to address this outbreak."
"The public should know how their government is preparing to handle it," said Assemblyman Fred Scalera. "We have no cause for panic, and seek to reassure the public that the state is implementing a smart and coordinated approach and that the best monitoring, precautions, information sharing and health care is being employed to keep the public safe."

The hearings come as NJ's apparent first local case of person to person transmission was announced:

The 22-year-old woman from Burlington County "had a connection" to a local family whose three confirmed cases were announced the day before, county health officials said. While the family had traveled to Mexico, she had not - suggesting that she got the disease from one of them. All the illnesses were mild.

There are 7 confirmed cases in NJ and 1 probable. And just to be safe, one school is closing for a few days:

As a precaution, health officials closed some schools in New Jersey and Delaware. Hainesport Township School in Burlington County, N.J. will be closed until at least Wednesday while officials await initial test results from two students who have flu-like symptoms.

The announced a toll free hotline last week that is displayed on the Governor's website to provide people with information and answer their questions. What do you make of the reaction to the Flu threat? Many have said this is a media sensation, it's overblown and that there are more casualties from the regular flu each year. But there has been a great deal of concern from people who are supposed to know how concerned we should be. I'm no medical expert, but I do know I didn't expect the county to be passing out medical masks at the doctor's offices.

Jason Springer :: Assembly holding Special Flu hearing Monday