For Immediate Release
(202) 224-5653

KOHL QUESTIONS SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY ABOUT FLU PANDEMIC SCHOOL POLICIES

  

 

 

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Herb Kohl today questioned the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Janet Napolitano, about the federal government’s reversal of its recommendation to close schools during the H1N1 influenza pandemic.  Napolitano testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee today during a hearing on DHS oversight.  Federal officials had recommended closing schools when potential cases of H1N1 flu, called “swine flu,” were detected in students, but reversed the policy yesterday.  The decisions affected hundreds of thousands of students and their families across the country. Last week, Rear Admiral Anne Schuchat, MD, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told Kohl that people should look to local public health authorities for information, since decisions about how to handle and isolate confirmed cases of swine flu would vary from community to community.  Kohl is urging a better informed plan in the event of a more serious flu outbreak in the fall.

 

“Over the past several days, federal officials have advised schools to close if they had probable cases of the swine flu.  But yesterday, federal officials changed their mind and advised schools to reopen.  Is there a one-size fits all answer to each school?” Kohl asked.

 

Napolitano said that schools are a central part of any plan to contain a pandemic, and that the department’s decision-making was driven by the government’s science community at the Centers for Disease Control, as well as the Department of Education.

 

Kohl is chairing a hearing in the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee tomorrow to examine the H1N1 flu pandemic with a focus on vaccine preparation for the fall.