President Barack Obama granted himself more broad powers late last week when he declared the swine flu outbreak a national emergency, announcing the decision over the weekend to a chorus of ridicule and fiery criticism.

A rule that would have forced half of a million healthcare workers in the state of New York to be vaccinated for seasonal and swine influenzas was suspended on October 22 following a series of protests, lawsuits, a restraining order, and an alleged shortage of supplies.

Public health officials in Florida are silently drawing up guidelines that call for “rationed” medical care, admission denials, and even withdrawing essential care from certain patients in the event of a serious spread of influenza, documents show.

Most people who were diagnosed with probable or presumed swine flu in the last few months likely did not actually have it, a CBS investigation published Wednesday revealed.

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.