The federal government has released a new tool to help protect Americans from the H1N1 coronavirus.
It’s called the Flu Emergency Alert, and it’s available at all the government agencies that have H1Ns, and at businesses like Walmart.
The tool was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and is being tested for public use at a number of sites.
It alerts users via text or phone, via a web browser or a smartphone app, or via a combination of both.
The alert will automatically notify the user if they’ve been infected with the H5N1 strain of coronaviruses.
“H1N2 is very different from H1W1, so we’re looking at different technologies,” Dr Michael Brown, chief of pandemic preparedness and response at the CDC, told ABC News.
“One is we have a different strategy than we did in H1, which is we’re going to deploy the tools we have in place, and then we’ll deploy the new technology that we’re introducing that will better protect the population.”
Brown said the CDC would continue to monitor the health status of the population to see if it needed to deploy new tools.
But, as of the end of last week, the CDC had deployed at least one of the tools to its network.
Brown said that the CDC does not yet know if the alert will be activated at other government agencies, but it would be a good idea for the public to be aware of the alert.
“We want to make sure we’re deploying those tools that are appropriate for the community,” he said.
“So the most important thing that we can do is make sure that we are doing all the things that are necessary to make it happen.”
The Flu Emergency Information System, or FEEIS, is the brainchild of CDC director Tom Frieden, and will be used by at least three federal agencies.
Frieden said the tool will help prevent a pandemic.
“It will not necessarily help with the transmission of H1.
We want to protect our health and our communities,” he told ABCNews.com.
The CDC is testing FEE IS, and a website will be launched in a few weeks that will let people find out when it is deployed.
The website, called www.fefis.gov, will include links to news reports and videos from the US and Canada.
Fee IS will also include links from other countries that have issued warnings about the pandemic, including Australia, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, Russia and South Korea.
Brown confirmed that the tool would not be used at Walmart, as the retail giant is part of the federal government.
However, he said Walmart will have to make a decision about whether to deploy it.
“The vast majority of the people who are in our stores are in the country that is testing,” he explained.
“Walmart is one of those people.”
But the vast majority will be at home.
They’re going into our stores, they’re going through our checkout, and they’re accessing our websites and so on.
“He said the store’s safety protocols, such as ensuring that employees and visitors are vaccinated, and the safety of the food and beverage it serves, will be kept in mind.”
And Walmart is one that’s going to make those decisions based on the information that they’ve got,” he added.
