"We're not done until every community has a plan," said Leavitt, who oversaw federal pandemic preparations during his time at HHS.

Leavitt criticized the Obama administration's failure to fill the "top 20" vacancies at HHS, implying that this could adversely affect future efforts to stem a pandemic. He added that if the swine flu emerges as a pandemic level event, "it will be five months before a safe vaccine is ready. Even then, our nation's neglect of vaccine capacity for the previous two decades means there will be inadequate vaccine supply."

Last year's flu vaccine is reportedly not effective against the current H1N1 swine flu virus.

The swine flu is actually something of a misnomer, according to veterinarian Chris Crnich, director of agriculture homeland security with the Utah Department of Agriculture. Scientists are "frantically looking" for the origins of the flu, he said, but so far know only that it has avian, human and swine genetic markers. The flu got its name because it's believed to resemble the 1918 pandemic flu, which was a swine flu.

Utah Commissioner of Agriculture and Food Leonard Blackham noted in a press release Monday that swine flu viruses are not transmitted by food, "so you cannot get swine flu from eating pork or pork products." But, since flu is transmissible from human to animal, Utah swine and poultry producers with flu-like symptoms "are advised to not mingle with their animals."

Cases of the flu have been laboratory-confirmed in California, Kansas, New York, Ohio and Texas, a total of 40 cases to date, according to statistics from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Utah's congressional leaders are weighing in on the flu, urging Utahns to wash their hands and to cover their coughs and sneezes. Sen. Orrin Hatch added a plug for bipartisan legislation that would provide "incentives to companies to develop vaccines as well as drugs and devices to combat acts of bioterrorism."

Meanwhile, some Utahns are taking matters into their own (frequently washed) hands. Alpine Home Medical, a Salt Lake medical products company, reports that customers began calling Monday morning about surgical masks to protect them from flu germs, and by noon all 10 boxes on its shelves were gone.

E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com