Swine Flu Hit 800,000 New Yorkers

As many as 800,000 New Yorkers were infected with the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, last spring, according to the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Thomas Frieden, who was New York's health commissioner during the height of the outbreak before moving to the CDC, told C-SPAN that the virus was widespread in the five boroughs.

The CDC is expected to release a full report about the swine flu later this week. Frieden said that if the virus doesn't mutate in the upcoming flu season then the outbreak will likely be less severe because many New Yorkers who were already sick will have some immunity to it.

"Everything we've seen in the U.S. and everything we've seen around the world suggests we won't see that kind of number if the virus doesn't change," Frieden said.

An infectious disease expert that Fox 5 News spoke to agreed.

"If you look at this from a public health perspective overall, we've had a mild experience and the forecast is we probably will continue to have a mild experience, although that's not guaranteed, said Dr. Andrew Garrett, of the Columbia University School of Public Health.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg said that the deaths from swine flu were tragic, but pointed out that most of the victims had underlying health conditions that contributed to their deaths.

Bloomberg, the city's current health commissioner, schools chancellor, and head of public hospitals will hold a technical briefing Tuesday on how to combat the H1 N1 virus in the fall.