Boy, that's a pretty big jump. The new numbers include deaths indirectly caused by flu complications like pneumonia:

Swine flu has killed nearly 4,000 people in the US, including 540 children, officials said after devising a new counting method.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the new system is based on more precise figures provided by 10 states.

The previous estimated death toll from the H1N1 virus in the US was 672.

Latest figures show about 22 million Americans contracted the virus in six months with some 98,000 hospitalised.

"This is just the first six months and I am expecting all of these numbers, unfortunately, to continue to rise," said Dr Anne Schuchat of the CDC.

She said that, although still imprecise, the new statistics provide "a bigger picture of what has been going on in the first six months of the pandemic".

The CDC now estimates that 3,900 people in the US have died from the virus in the past six months.

Dr Schuchat said that in children under 18, an estimated eight million have had swine flu, with 36,000 hospitalised and 540 deaths.

The new estimated death toll for children is four times higher than the previous estimate.

"We will be updating the toll that the pandemic has taken... about every three to four weeks," she said.

This is startling news. Until we know if there's a connection, pregnant women should be very careful. Talk to your doctor about whether you should have Tamiflu in reserve:

THURSDAY, Oct. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Twenty-eight pregnant women in the United States had died from H1N1 swine flu as of the end of August, and 100 pregnant women had been hospitalized in intensive care, federal health officials said Thursday.

While the officials said they've never tracked deaths of pregnant women from seasonal flu, the number of deaths from the H1N1 flu could be significant.

"These are really upsetting numbers," Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during an afternoon press conference.

"We have obstetricians here at CDC who are coordinating the outreach as well as the surveillance efforts around it," she said. "And they're talking to doctors around the country who have never seen this kind of thing before. We don't track seasonal flu. We haven't in the past tracked seasonal flu complications in pregnancy. But what we are seeing is quite striking."

Schuchat said it's not yet clear whether there is something different about the H1N1 flu's effect on pregnant women, or whether researchers are noticing its effect on pregnant women more because the virus is being monitored closely.

"But I think the obstetric caregivers here and the ones that we're speaking with have rarely seen this kind of thing in practice," she said.

Schuchat urged pregnant women to get both the seasonal flu vaccine and the H1N1 swine flu vaccine, which will be available starting next week. Seasonal flu vaccines are already available.

"We encourage caregivers to vaccinate pregnant women or refer them to a place where they can be vaccinated," she said.

She also stressed that women, doctors and nurse midwives should remember that "antiviral medicine [such as Tamiflu] can be a very important treatment for pregnant women who have respiratory illness and influenza-like symptoms."

The video I selected has nothing to do with the Sunday shows, just one that I thought was cool. In truth, it's the same people having the same conversations with the bobbleheads this morning. Quite literally. With the media panic over the H1N1 or "swine" flu in overdrive, we are being treated to appearances by Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano, New HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Acting CDC Director Richard Besser on not one or two but FIVE of the morning shows. Will they be asked why we should be so scared of H1N1 when regular flu kills 20,000 a year without closing borders or mandating flu shots? Or the almost 15,000 people who died of AIDS? No? Well, then how about how Canadian pigs actually contracted swine flu from a farm worker? Not to be outdone, newly minted Democratic Senator Arlen Specter shows up on two shows and is a planned subject of at least one other. Considering the kind of Republican he was, I don't think we should anticipate such great shakes from him switching parties.

ABC's "This Week" — Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius; Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; acting CDC Director Richard Besser.

CBS' "Face the Nation" — Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa.; Besser; Sebelius; Napolitano.

NBC's "Meet the Press" — Sebelius; Napolitano; Besser; Specter.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Joe Klein, Kelly O'Donnell, Kathleen Parker, Howard Fineman. Topics: Will Arlen Specter provide Obama a reliable 60th vote in the Senate? Will the Republican Party adjust to regain national prominence? Meter Questions: Will Republicans genuinely reevaluate? YES: 4 NO: 8; With Specter joining the Dems, will health care pass? YES: 7 No: 5.

CNN's "State of the Union" — Leahy; House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va.; former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney; Napolitano; Sebelius; Besser.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - This week on GPS, Fareed sits down for an exclusive interview with Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the Pentagon. Gates is the guest for the hour and the discussion covers the world: the current crisis in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, global nuclear proliferation, and U.S. imperialism.

"Fox News Sunday" — Napolitano; Sebelius; Besser; Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and John Ensign, R-Nev.

What's catching your eye this morning?