Posted on 10/07/2005 8:17:11 PM PDT by freedomdefender
A draft of the final plan, which has been years in the making and is expected to be released later this month, says that a large outbreak that began in Asia would, because of modern travel patterns, likely reach the United States within "a few months or even weeks."
If such an outbreak occurred, hospitals would become overwhelmed; riots would engulf vaccination clinics; and even power and food would be in short supply, the plan, obtained by The New York Times, says.
The 381-page plan calls for quarantine and travel restrictions but concedes that such measures "are unlikely to delay introduction of pandemic disease into the U.S. by more than a month or two."
The plan's 10 supplements suggest specific ways that local and state governments, and hospitals and healthcare workers should prepare now for an eventual pandemic by, for instance, drafting legal documents now that would justify quarantining thousands.
The plan outlines a worst-case scenario in which more than 1.9 million Americans would die and 8.5 million would be hospitalized with costs exceeding $450 billion.
It also calls for a domestic vaccine production capacity of 600 million doses within 6 months, more than 10 times the country's present capacity.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
"says that a large outbreak that began in Asia would, because of modern travel patterns, likely reach the United States within "a few months or even weeks"...hospitals would become overwhelmed; riots would engulf vaccination clinics"
Duh. This is old news. We've known that travel patterns would outpace CDC's ability to respond since...since we started worrying about bioweapons back in the Cold War.
The thing is that nobody is ready. And there's little way to get ready. We need a vaccine, but we can't even create it until the mutation occurs. Even then, it's six months to a year assuming everything goes right in the manufacturing process.
Whose going to believe them any more after decades of calling wolf even if this is true?
I'm not sure what precautions we could take but it's on their head at this point if we don't bother to learn what we can do.
Hard to believe it's been a year since all that false hysteria over a shortage of flu vaccine. Conveniently this happened during the heat of the presidential campaign and put GWB on the defensive. Plenty on the left even blamed the administration for it. Unreal.
I hear ya....
Let's pray they continue to be wrong.
Why is it that you never hear of fast spreading diseases like this one, spreading to islamic muslim countries???
Right you are.
Sometime ago I was hospitalized with viral enteritus and I am here to tell you that I was never so sick in my life. If not for the fluid replacement at the hospital, I would be pushing up daisies. My BP dropped to 80/40 and I was completely dehydrated in less than three hours. Take precautions. It may save your life.
Does anyone know if those of us who have birds as pets are in any way placing our families at risk should a bird flu epidemic stike? Is the bird flu spread among all birds? My birds do not contact other birds, but would they be an intermediary to pass it between people in my family?
Solutions and proposals, please.
Alarm is quite childish.
What can we really do? I live in the suburbs of a moderately large city in the midwest? Should I stock pile a years worth of food and water?
Not Bush's fault. Blame the pharmaceutical companies who have backed away from developing new vaccines and making known vaccines because of liability from lawsuits.
My idiot sister-in-law has pet chickens...:)
"What can we really do? I live in the suburbs of a moderately large city in the midwest? Should I stock pile a years worth of food and water?"
Probably wouldn't do you any good. During 1918 when the Spanish Flue hit (that killed 50,000,000) healthy adults went to work healthy in the morning and were dead by nightfall. Their lungs filled with fluid and effectively drowned. And to make it worse, the healthy were the most affected as it turned their otherwise healthy immune systems against its own host.
We are looking at an unmitigated disaster here. What we should probably do is to stop any travel to this country until it passes. It will be draconian but necessary. The alternative would be to go to where no other people are living. It is not just catching the flu from birds but the virus is mutating so it passes from human to human. This will make Hurrican Katrina look like a walk in the park.
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