One day after publicly educating a White House reporter on the proper way to sneeze, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius spoke to college journalists about the prevalence of swine flu on campuses across the country.

Sebelius, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Beth Bell from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held a conference call Friday to address the special needs associated with preventing H1N1 at U.S. universities.

Sebelius joked Friday about sharing the “sneeze protocol” at a White House briefing Thursday after NBC reporter Chuck Todd sneezed into his hand, rather than his elbow.

“The sneeze protocol is what we’re trying to share with everyone,” she said. “The H1N1 virus is just as, or more, dangerous than the seasonal flu.”

Duncan pointed to three ways colleges and universities can minimize the disruption caused by H1N1 to the educational process. No. 1, he said, is prevention, followed by close monitoring and common sense.

“We’re extraordinarily pleased with colleges’ response [to H1N1],” Duncan said, noting the social isolation techniques some campuses have used to quarantine students with the virus. “And as the vaccine becomes available, having it available on college campuses is hugely important. We want colleges to be part of the solution.”

Sebelius said she learned last week the H1N1 vaccine will be ready by mid-October, with limited supplies as early as the first week in October.

“For the college population, one dose will be sufficient,” she said. “A very robust immune response is arrived in one dose and hits in about 10 days.”

She said getting college students vaccinated is a “major goal,” which involves mitigation strategies such as using common sense about hand washing.

“And covering a cough or a sneeze,” she said. “With not hands, but an elbow or a handkerchief.”

“It sounds kind of silly, but [those tactics] are incredibly effective in stopping the virus from traveling from person to person,” Sebelius said.

Flu season began much earlier than usual this year, Bell said, and many of the cases are H1N1. She said though all 50 states have been hit with the virus, the Southeast has had the highest activity.

Bell said the CDC has not set a threshold for the amount of cases on a campus before it would need to cancel classes.

“Really this needs to be a local decision that takes into account the particulars of the institution, what’s going on locally, what local health officials say and the university as a whole,” she said. “Everyone needs to look at their own situation, then make decisions on a case by case basis.”

Sebelius said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has decided to use social media to communicate with college students to get out the facts about H1N1.

“We have been tweeting and using Facebook,” she said, “and finally decided that a great idea might be to run our own PSA contest on Youtube, knowing college students are watching that.”

On Tuesday at 9 a.m., students can watch a Web cast of a town hall meeting on the flu at www.flu.gov, where the winning PSA will be announced. Sebelius said 200 PSAs were submitted and more than 57,000 people voted for the winning piece.

The meeting, which will be held at George Mason University, will discuss the seasonal flu as well as H1N1. Students are encouraged to send in questions via Twitter by using the tag #collegeflu.