In a press release dated June 11, 2009, Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), announced that the H1N1 influenza pandemic had been raised to Alert Phase 6, the highest possible WHO classification (see Appendix A for WHO alert phase descriptions). The WHO press release marked the official start of the 2009 influenza pandemic (WHO, 2009), and public health officials, governments, emergency management planners, and ordinary citizens may have feared that the world was facing a possible catastrophic event . It was not until September 10, 2010 that the WHO declared the H1N1 influenza pandemic downgraded to the post-pandemic alert phase (WHO, 2010a). However, just because the WHO declared the 2009-2010 influenza pandemic over does not mean that H1N1 (commonly known as swine flu) has been eradicated: the virus is still present. Estimates for the end of the influenza season in the spring and summer of 2010 place the number of H1N1 deaths worldwide between 12,240 (CDC, 2010) and 18,097 (WHO, 2010b). While fewer than 20,000 deaths due to H1N1 influenza in just one flu season is not insignificant, nor is the estimated 26,000 deaths per year from “seasonal flu” (CDC, 2011), these numbers are not the millions of deaths typically associated with an influenza pandemic and do not represent the numbers used when planning and discussing the next pandemic. Furthermore, these numbers do not represent the full consequences of the 2009 influenza pandemic; Millions of people have been diagnosed with, treated for, and survived H1N1 influenza, as will undoubtedly happen during the next influenza pandemic. The range provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the total number of cases in the United States from April 2009 to March 201...... middle of the document ...... age in case of influenza pandemic . PhiSci Archive, University of Pittsburgh. Accessed 02/19/2012 http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/4208/Thompson, A. K., Faith, K., Gibson, J. L., & Upshur, R. (2006). Pandemic influenza preparedness: An ethical framework to guide decision making. BioMed Central. 7(12),DOI: 10.1186/1472-6939-7-12World Health Organization (WHO). (2009). The world now at the beginning of the 2009 influenza pandemic. Accessed 02/19/2012 http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2009/h1n1_pandemic_phase6_20090611/en/World Health Organization. (2010a). H1N1 in the post-pandemic period. Accessed 19/02/2012http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2010/h1n1_vpc_20100810/en/index.htmlWorld Health Organization. (2010b). Weekly update - Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 - update 101. Accessed 02/19/2012 http://www.who.int/csr/don/2010_05_21/en/index.html