# 3031
The HHS/CDC has been experimenting with new ways to rapidly get vital information out to the public using the Internet for some time now, starting with an extensive web presence along with podcasts and videos, and more recently moving into website widgets and Twitter.
According to Andrew P. Wilson of the HHS, the CDC’s new Swine Flu site has already seen a half million visitors.
This morning the CDC unveiled a new audio podcast on swine flu – basically a primer for the public on what swine flu is, how you catch it – and what to do if you get sick.
The audio runs less than 6 minutes. Click the graphic to listen.
To get real time updates on Twitter, the best feed to follow right now is CDCEmergency. You may also wish to follow AndrewPWilson, FEMA, and Pandemicflu.gov.
A more extensive list of Twitter emergency feeds may be found on my sidebar.
The CDC released a web widget, designed for websites like mine, Facebook, MySpace, and other social media sites to link to the CDC’s Swine Flu Information.
This technique worked very well with the peanut recall earlier this Spring and has been used to remind people of the importance of yearly flu vaccinations for flu seasons.
Finally, if you use an RSS reader (I use Blogbridge), you can receive updates whenever the CDC adds anything to their Swine Flu website by visiting their RSS Feed page and adding it to your software.
How to Add the CDC Swine Flu RSS Feed
What is RSS?
RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication, is an easy way to receive automatic updates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention right on your desktop or browser.
How do you add an RSS feed from this site?
To view this site's feeds in your RSS news reader…
- Copy the URL of the feed below.
- Following the instructions of your particular news reader, paste the URL into your reader.
http://www2a.cdc.gov/podcasts/createrss.asp?t=r&c=252&showall=1
