Updated

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says people should expect "a big influx" of swine flu cases this fall and brace for it as best they can.

Napolitano also said in a nationally broadcast interview Wednesday that many cases are likely to surface before a vaccine for H1N1 is available, probably no earlier than mid-October.

She said "the best things we all can do are the very simple things" like thorough and frequent hand-washing and coughing into the sleeve. Napolitano appeared on NBC's "Today" show a day after President Barack Obama got a briefing on federal plans for the virus and said that people should be prepared but not alarmed.