News & Politics - Plan shows U.S. not ready for Flu Crisis.

Jedisakora · 10-08-2005, 09:44 AM

From MSNBC News.

Quote:

Report: Plan shows U.S. not ready for flu crisis
Draft says any Asia outbreak could hit U.S. within weeks or months

Reuters
Updated: 12:24 p.m. ET Oct. 8, 2005

NEW YORK - A draft of the Bush administration’s final plan for dealing with a likely pandemic flu outbreak shows the United States is woefully unprepared for the potential disaster, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The document says a large outbreak that began in Asia would be likely to reach the United States within “a few months or even weeks,” and that more than 1.9 million people could die in the worst case scenario, the Times said.

If that occurred, according to the draft, hospitals would be overwhelmed, riots would engulf vaccination clinics and power and food would be in short supply, it said.

The Times said it obtained a copy of the plan which has been years in the making and is expected to be released later this month. A spokeswoman for Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt told the paper the document it had was a draft and had not been finalized.

The H5N1 avian influenza virus has killed millions of birds across Asia and infected 116 people, killing 60 of them. If it acquires the ability to pass easily from person to person, it could kill millions in the space of a few months, experts say.

The nearly 400-page plan calls for quarantine and travel restrictions, but notes that those moves are unlikely to slow ”introduction of pandemic disease into the U.S. by more than a month or two,” the Times said.

The draft, written by health officials, includes 10 supplements that suggest ways for local and state governments to prepare, such as drafting documents that would justify quarantine. It does not address military or other government departmental responses, the Times reported.

According to the document, in the worst-case scenario 8.5 million would also be hospitalized, and costs would exceed $450 billion. It calls for production of 600 million vaccines within six months, which is more than 10 times current capacity.

President Bush met with the chief executive officers of some of the top corporate makers of vaccines Friday and asked them to do their utmost to boost flu vaccine production.

The Times quoted an unnamed health official who provided the copy of the plan as saying its true shortcoming was “that is doesn’t say who’s in charge.”

Envisioning how an outbreak might play out at its peak, the draft says about a quarter of workers stay home because they are sick or afraid of becoming sick. Hospitals are overwhelmed, it says.

“Social unrest occurs,” the plan says. “Public anxiety heightens mistrust of government, diminishing compliance with public health advisories. Mortuaries and funeral homes are overwhelmed.”

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.
© 2005 MSNBC.com

This Bird Flu has really got me freaked out. I hope they're able to contain it.

In Fair Verona · 10-08-2005, 10:56 AM

Bird Flu is freaking me out as well. I try not to get paranoid, but when I hear things such as that by the end of the decade over seven million people will have died from it - well, that's a little unnerving.

Lexis · 10-08-2005, 01:30 PM

Forgive me if I sound like a crazy ass survivalist but I've been preparing my family's emergency plans these past few days.

The guys at Daily Kos (god bless their liberal hearts!) have been pushing http://www.fluwikie.com/index.php?n=Main.PFAW. I advise you all to take a look and start thinking about the measures you may need to take. Better safe than sorry.

mh67511 · 10-08-2005, 09:54 PM

You know, I'm starting to get nervous about this bird flu too! It just doesn't seem there is much we can do....humans have no natural immunity to it and there's no way to know when it will mutate into a form that can harm humans. It will take a while to make a vaccine too.

I am going to check out that link.

Also I've been looking around for just general ways to prevent the flu, so trying to just keep myself healthy! I think at this point, it's the best thing you can do.

**TheAngel** · 10-09-2005, 06:30 AM

I'm not nervous at all. I'll die when it's my time, no sooner and no later, all is as it is meant to be. However, look at the wonderful world of media we live in today. Everything is overblown, exaggerated for the headlines. I'd be surprised if there were many deaths from the bird flu this year at all, and I understand that it is a problem and will be in the future, but no country has ever been prepared for health outbreaks. This article makes it sound like the US is the only one but almost all countries are poorly prepared for all disasters they suffer, not just the US. There are simply too many wheels that have to get moving and it's very difficult to do. So no, I'm not really scared about it.


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