Swine flu vaccinations start as officials attack myths

As children received swine flu vaccine for the first time, federal health officials attacked popular myths about the pandemic and the vaccine designed to stop it. Thomas R. Frieden, MD, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a news conference that the most common misperceptions are that this flu should ever be called a "mild disease," that the vaccine is untested and that it has arrived too late. Flu is widespread across the country and some hospitals are getting so many emergency room visits that they have set up triage tents, but Frieden said no intensive care units have had more patients than ventilators—something that did happen in one Canadian province last spring.