While we cannot absolutely prevent a pandemic, we can mitigate its impact.

In California alone, scientists estimate a pandemic could cause approximately 35 percent of the population to become ill.

An influenza pandemic could cause widespread economic and societal disruption and seriously strain our health care system.

An influenza pandemic could be the greatest public health challenge of our time.

The biggest challenge is getting people to think the unthinkable.

They would never be used lightly.

We are facing an epidemic of obesity that threatens the public health of California and the rest of the nation. We must improve our children's nutrition and level of physical activity if we are going to reverse this trend.