A justice for the New York Supreme Court in Albany issued a temporary reprieve late last week from mandatory H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccinations for healthcare workers, pending the result of a follow up hearing on October 30.

The Massachusetts House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly late last week in favor of a draconian bill that purports to give public health and law-enforcement officials extraordinary authority during “public health emergencies” declared by the Governor.

Concern over the H1N1 swine flu has inundated the airwaves and the newspapers since active swine flu was first identified in Mexico in April. And though the panic has waned slightly in recent weeks because this variant of the flu is not living down to its deadly predictions (in fact, it’s not even as deadly as the seasonal flu), for many people, if not most people, perception trumps facts and statistics, and so there have been mass mobilizations to combat the contagion.

Death from the flu is often heartrending for those who have to watch: the victim, having been weakened from the flu virus, contracts pneumonia from bacteria or viruses that have taken hold in the lungs, and he or she struggles for every breath.

Healthcare workers in the state of New York are resisting and protesting government-mandated vaccinations against the seasonal and swine influenzas, drawing a great deal of media coverage.

Judicial analyst and former federal judge Andrew Napolitano blasted a controversial bill in Massachusetts and warned that the public would resist. During an interview on Fox News, the well-known freedom advocate also described various powers the legislation purports to authorize — e.g., forcibly quarantining residents without a warrant — in the name of quelling a public-health threat such as that supposedly presented by the swine flu virus.  And he told the Fox News show host that the legislation appeared to be on track for passage.

The coming swine flu vaccination campaign is expected to begin in October. But with vaccine safety tests being fast-tracked under “public health emergency” rules and the use of some questionable ingredients, many health experts are warning about a myriad of risks associated with the vaccine and the importance of being educated.

Despite the hysteria created by the media, effects related to the outbreak of the swine flu virus remain relatively mild so far. It has not mutated and thus far has claimed few lives when compared with the normal seasonal influenza, even in Southern Hemisphere countries like Australia where winter is drawing to a close along with the typical flu season.

A pandemic and disaster preparation bill (S. 2028) passed unanimously by the Massachusetts Senate earlier this year is receiving wide-spread criticism as citizens mobilize to oppose its passage in the commonwealth’s House of Representatives.

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology issued a dire warning Monday about the spread of the swine flu virus later this year, titled "On US Preparations for 2009-H1N1 Influenza." It claimed that a "plausible scenario" would be "infection of 30–50 percent of the U.S. population this fall and winter, with symptoms in approximately 20–40 percent of the population (60–120 million people), more than half of whom would seek medical attention."