Here at the FOX News bureau in Atlanta, we’re awaiting a 12 PM Eastern media briefing from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Anne Schuchat, MD, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases is scheduled to update reporters on the latest H1N1 activity and the distribution of vaccine.

Last week, the CDC reported a downward trend in influenza activity, but cautioned that it was too early to declare the worst was over. Health experts say holiday travel may cause temporary spikes.

AAA projects 38.4 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home over the Thanksgiving holiday (a 1.4 percent increase over last year when Thanksgiving travel decreased by more than 25 percent amid concerns over the economic meltdown),

In addition to the usual recommendations to wash hands, cover coughs and get vaccinated as soon as possible, the CDC is urging people not to travel if they’re sick.

As of yesterday, 49,584,300 doses of H1N1 vaccine have shipped nationwide, according to flu.gov.

Although state health departments continue to focus vaccination campaigns on high risk groups, such as children, health care workers, pregnant women and persons with underlying health conditions, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell told reporters, vaccine could become available to the general public within the next few weeks.

Canadian health officials have advised doctors in that country to stop using a specific batch of H1N1 vaccine, representing 170 thousand doses, after half a dozen patients had severe allergic reactions. A CDC spokesman says the batch in question is an adjuvanted version of the H1N1 vaccine that is not distributed in the US.

Adjuvants are ingredients added to a vaccine to increase the body’s immune response, which often allows for the use of smaller doses — thereby extending limited vaccine supplies. Although widely used in Europe, Asia and Canada, adjuvants are not currently authorized for use in influenza vaccines here in the US.

Experts say it’s still unclear whether adjuvants played a role in the adverse reactions, or whether some other factor came into play.

Meanwhile, China has reported eight cases of H1N1 mutation. However, Chinese health officials say the variant form of the virus is still prevented by vaccines and responds to anti-viral drugs.

And four patients in an isolated unit at Duke University Medical Center have contracted a strain of H1N1 that shows resistance to Tamiflu, a leading anti-viral drug. However, doctors say this new form of the virus is no more severe than the original.

Early on, researchers warned that the H1N1 virus could mutate or develop resistance to anti-viral drugs. So far, variant forms of the virus do not appear to be in wide circulation.

If you want to see what a billion dollars can buy, come to Holly Springs, North Carolina. It’s home to the nation’s first Cell Based Flu Vaccine Manufacturing facility. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services footed part of the bill, paying 40 percent of the billion plus it cost to build the plant.  Swiss drug maker Novartis paid for the rest. So what is cell-based flu vaccine?

It’s a faster way of making vaccines that’s been around since 2000, and is currently used in many European countries. The method uses replicated animal cells instead of chicken eggs which is the fifty-year old traditional method of making flu vaccines. As shown with the current pandemic, sometimes it takes the virus a long time to grow in eggs, which leads to vaccine shortages.

Cell based technology has yet to receive FDA approval here in the U.S.  Why?

Federal Health Officials say when it comes to vaccines, they exercise an abundance of caution. In order for the FDA to approve a vaccine of any kind, it usually involves extensive testing and clinical trials. Those trials take time, but we are dealing with a pandemic right now. Many people are still waiting in long lines all over the country to get the 2009 H1N1 Vaccine. For them, the threat is real, and they want to know that something is being done to prevent flu vaccine shortages in the future. The facility here in Holly Springs is slated to be fully operational in 2012, but plant officials say they could get emergency approval to produce cell based vaccines as early as 2011, in the event of another pandemic threat. Once it gains FDA approval, the plant can make up to 150 Milllion doses of Flu Vaccine within six months of a declared pandemic. That’s four times the amount of vaccine federal officials had hoped to have by now, seven months after swine flu first emerged.

By Fox & Friends host Gretchen Carlson

Today I traveled to The Villages in Florida to interview Sarah Palin. A big crowd had gathered — some starting yesterday morning — to get a book signed. Gov. Palin pulled up in her bus, accompanied by her daughter Piper and her baby Trig. Her parents and aunt were with her as well.

My mom was with me too! Since I am about to start my Thanksgiving vacation. First, I’ll run at least 4 chunks of the interview tomorrow on Fox and Friends btwn 6-9am EST. I’ll be live in Florida to talk about the interview.

We discussed news of the day, specifically Afghanistan and the newly proposed war tax. We talked about sexism in the campaign. Palin spoke a lot about Hillary Clinton. She said she hopes she will speak up more.

We talked about things in the book people won’t know about Sarah Palin! That was fun!

Finally, I asked her and her daughter Piper about their Christmas traditions for our Fox and Friends Christmas Eve Special.

I am glad I decided to delay my vacation to secure an interview I’ve worked more than a year to get.

The one question Palin won’t answer is what she plans to do iin 2012! See you bright and early tomorrow.

Kamara Pettiford served five tours of duty with the US Army in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait. She’s bright, personable and attractive, served her country for seven years and has been out of work since May.

One issue is her lack of a college diploma. “It’s hard to get a degree with multiple deployments …” she told me. “Everytime you get started in class you get called up again.”

Kamara is working with the NY State Department of Labor to get tuition assistance and go back to school to pursue a career in criminal justice. She’s also working with a Veteran’s counselor to find work near her Brooklyn home in the interim.

Kamara is one of thousands of veterans showing up at the USS Intrepid Sea Air & Space Museum in New York City for the Operation HIRE Veterans Career Fair.

More than 75 employers have more then 2000 positions to fill. Many of the jobs are entry level. Some of the prospective employers include the NY State Police, FBI, Amtrak, Coca Cola, Pepsi and Fed-Ex. Wayne Packer from Lowe’s Home Improvement Stores is looking to fill dozens of positions.

Wayne and others say those who’ve served make excellent employees, but nearly 15% of the state’s Vets are out of work, a stat this job fair hopes to adjust downward.

Tamara says this is the first time she’s been unemployed since she was 15. “It’s frustrating at times” she told a group arriving for the event “but I’ve sacrificed too mich during my time in the military to give up hope.”

Okay so here’s a bit of a pickle we came across while On the Job Hunt: human resource departments are cutting back on personnel.  Meantime, human resource workers are being inundated with electronic resumés at a rate that has them buried in electronic paperwork.  At Denver Health, one of the area’s largest hospitals, “we get about 6700 applications a month” online, says Mark Genkinger, Human Resources Director of Recruitment.  Genkinger says it’s impossible to go through each one and this hospital doesn’t have one of the more sophisticated ‘applicant tracking systems’ some corporations use to sift out the contenders from the less qualified.   We asked Genkinger how someone stands out in a field of thousands.  He says, first of all, don’t send out the same resumé to a bunch of different openings.  Tailor your resumé to fit each position.  For example, Genkinger says, “…they may say, ’seeking to obtain management position’ but they’re applying for an individual contributor position.  Right then and there, I don’t need to read any further because I know I have hundreds, if not thousands of resumés still to review that may target those specific positions”.  Andrew Hudson, who helps people find jobs through his website, AndrewHudsonJobsList.com in Colorado, agrees.  Hudson also told us that if you’re unemployed, you still have a full-time job being the “Chief Marketing Officer for Yourself”. That means, Hudson explains, that you have to get offline to get yourself noticed.  Hudson says, “…it seems cliché, but networking is key.  Seventy percent of folks who get jobs, have gotten jobs as a result of who they know and being able to go to networking parties put on by associations that reflect your industry.”  Still not convinced? Consider this, in June of this year, more than 65 million Americans visited a career-related website.  The message we got while on this story was, much of the world may be in the state-of-the-art electronic age, but throwing back to the out-of-style, get-off-your tail age could be ingenious.  In other words, don’t overestimate the power of the internet while underestimating the impression of good ol’ snail mail. As we were told by a hiring agent who sees hundreds of e-mails a day, “What differentiates a candidate is an old-fashioned card in the mail that’s handwritten, that just says thank you for the interview.  It makes a big difference.”