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This week, the Louisville Science Center is hosting a discussion about health care, and it’s just the beginning of what officials intend to become frequent conversations about science-related issues. WFPL’s Elizabeth Kramer has more.

Thursday is the first event of the series the center is calling Scientific Proofs. The center has teamed up with the University of Louisville to assemble a panel of experts in for-profit and not-for-profit health care and tapped Louisville Metro Director of Public Health Dr. Adewale Troutman to facilitate the conversation.

“We’re bringing some people together to begin a conversation and to give people a safe place to come to begin thinking for themselves, for their families, for their community about this issue in local terms,” says Science Center executive director Joanna Haas.

She says she wants to have up to eight such events during the year on subjects such as stem-cell research, genetically modified foods and robotics in manufacturing.

“I think it’s a fun, new enterprise for us and really galvanizes this role of community catalyst for science literacy and for conversations about science,” Haas says.

Besides being a destination for children and families, Haas says she wants to make the center a resource for information about science for adults.

“We as a community education entity want to help bridge the gap between those seemingly complex subjects and sort of the personal reality of them,” she says.

Thursday’s event is free but advance reservations are required. (To reserve tickets, call 502. 560.7130.)

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Today, Gov. Steve Beshear announced the state now has a telephone hotline for people with questions about the H1N1 flu. WFPL’s Elizabeth Kramer has more.

Within its first hour of operation Monday, 10 people had called the hotline, which the public can call and talk to a live person.

The number is 877-843-7727.

William Hacker is the commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health. He says most questions concern what priority groups should get the vaccine and when it will be available.

Hacker also says the four recent deaths in Kentucky from the H1N1 flu did not indicate any changes in the virus.

“The fact that we’ve had these deaths does not indicate a change of virulence,” Hacker says. “It’s simply the fact that as we have more cases, some individuals will have a rougher course than others and this is just a typical outcome for flu.”

Hacker says health care workers are the first group recommended to get vaccinated. There are nearly 150,000 health care workers statewide.

Hacker says priority groups will get doses from the first shipments of vaccines from the federal government. He says those shipments are imminent.

“We anticipate some vaccine coming into Kentucky as early as Monday and Tuesday,” he says. “Early shipments of vaccines are targeted towards health care professionals to give them the vaccine so they will be healthy and able to take care of individuals who do become ill.”

The hotline was funded with federal dollars. The department plans to operate the hotline through December, but could extend the date based on public demand.

The Kentucky Department of Health’s website on H1N1 flu

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