Pro-Con | Is it time to start counting the positives from the swine flu pandemic? (The Kansas City Star) In my view, there are a lot of positives to take away from this experience. By the end of 2009, our influenza enterprise supplied almost 200 million doses of flu vaccine in the U.S. That included about 110 million seasonal influenza doses and nearly that many pandemic H1N1 vaccine doses. [News Source]

Letter to the editor From Y2K to 9-11, reader takes a look at 2009 (Mayerthorpe Freelancer) December 31, 2009 marks the end of a decade that leaves many asking what happened. Ten years ago we all sat anxiously awaiting the fate of the world. The Y2K bug was set to invade our computers and wreak havoc on mankind. [News Source]

The Fatal Strain: On the Trail of Avian Flu and the Coming Pandemic [Book and Media Reviews] (Journal of the American Medical Association) JAMA. 2010;303(1):78-79. [News Source]

Alan Sipress: Swine Flu Scare: A Trial Run for Something Far Worse? (The Huffington Post) Swine flu has given many a fright and the top pandemic flu expert at the World Health Organization has warned in recent weeks that the global epidemic isn't over yet. [News Source]

H1N1 mass outbreak ‘exists.’ China said on Monday it had recorded 659 swine flu deaths in 2009, nearly all of them in the last two months of the year, and warned that the danger of mass outbreaks still existed in certain areas. [News Source]

Inovio Appoints Dr. Mark Bagarazzi as Chief Medical Officer (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance) SAN DIEGO----Inovio Biomedical Corporation , a leader in DNA vaccine design, development and delivery, announced today that Mark L. Bagarazzi, M.D., has been appointed Chief Medical Officer. [News Source]

Kathy Freston: Flu Season: Factory Farming Could Cause A Catastrophic Pandemic (The Huffington Post) So far, only thousands of people have died from swine flu. Unless we radically change the way chickens and pigs are raised for food, though, it may only be a matter of time before a catastrophic pandemic arises. [News Source]

HHS to host special flu webcast on Jan 6, 2010 (News-Medical-Net) The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will host a Know What to Do about the Flu Webcast on Wednesday, January 6, 2010 from 1 – 2 p.m. EST. [News Source]

USU offers public H1N1 vaccination (The Logan Herald Journal) Utah State University’s Student Health and Wellness Center has partnered with the Bear River Health Department to offer H1N1 flu vaccination to the general public. [News Source]

Vienna scientists develop new technique for producing H1N1 vaccines (News-Medical-Net) Scientists in Vienna have developed a new technique for producing vaccines for H1N1, 'swine flu', based on insect cells. The research, published today in the Biotechnology Journal, reveals how influenza vaccines can be produced faster than through the traditional method of egg-based production, revealing a new strategy for the fight against influenza pandemics. [News Source]