Posted on 04/08/2006 6:16:13 PM PDT by blam
Revealed: the secret No 10 plan to tackle bird flu food shortages
By Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor
(Filed: 09/04/2006)
Emergency plans to tackle widespread food shortages in the event of a bird flu pandemic are being drawn up by ministers, according to secret Cabinet documents.
Off-duty firemen and retired lorry drivers would be pressed into service to ensure that essential food and drink supplies were delivered. Laws that restrict the daily hours of drivers and other vital workers would be suspended.
An extract from the secret Cabinet documents
The confidential papers - seen by the Sunday Telegraph - show that a serious lack of long-distance- HGV drivers willing to go to infected areas is seen in Whitehall as a potential "pinch point" if avian flu takes a grip. The papers reveal government concern over a lack of preparation for a pandemic among the biggest food firms.
They also show how, in the event of a serious outbreak overseas, the Government will give preventive medicine to embassy and consular staff - but not to British holidaymakers or UK nationals who live in an infected country.
The Government fears that any pandemic could last more than six months. The documents say that Whitehall should be on alert for a pandemic on an "extended time-scale - certainly for six months … and perhaps longer". They also suggest "more than one pandemic wave" of bird flu.
Senior vet Douglas Gray inspects a dead swan in Aberdeen
The documents were drawn up on March 22, a fortnight before a dead swan in a village in Fife was found to have the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease. The swan, which was washed ashore in the village of Cellardyke, had a strain similar to that contracted by 100 birds in Germany. Tests are continuing on hundreds of other dead birds, but none - apart from the swan - has tested positive for H5N1. Fourteen other birds that gave rise to concern tested negative.
The documents show a lack of preparedness in Whitehall that ministers and officials are working round the clock to combat. Their disclosure came as the Government was accused of "astonishing complacency" over planning, with farmers angry about confusing advice and the £1.2 billion poultry industry braced for a consumer backlash.
Industry leaders and poultry staff called for vaccinations to protect birds and farm workers, amid claims that the situation was becoming reminiscent of the foot and mouth crisis, which left thousands of animals on giant pyres.
The Government papers, which have been discussed by the "Cabinet Committee on Influenza Pandemic Planning", include a blueprint for "managing the response" to a pandemic. Whitehall would go into what officials call a full-scale "battle rhythm" with Tony Blair lined up to take personal charge at an as yet unspecified stage.
It is understood that two issues particularly concerning ministers are the difficulties of closing large numbers of schools and the provision of masks to large numbers of people, should the need arise.
A Government paper revealed last week suggested that families might have to wait up to four weeks to bury their dead. Ministers warned that up to 320,000 people could die in a pandemic.
The Cabinet documents reveal how the Environment Department fears that no large-scale plans to combat a pandemic have been lined up by big food companies apart from Marks & Spencer - suggesting a chronic lack of preparedness. They add: "HGV drivers had been identified as a potential pinch-point by some sectors. Various mitigation options were being discussed, including using retired drivers or off-duty fire service personnel, and lifting the requirements of the Working Time Directive."
An accompanying memo by Lord Triesman, the junior foreign office minister, puts forward an exhaustive plan for coping with a bird flu outbreak abroad. In the event of humans being infected, the document suggests, "we may come under pressure from the media and the British public at home to appear to be doing more for our nationals immediately affected by the virus. In particular we would hope to deal with the potential sensitivity of providing Tamilflu antiviral treatment for use by overseas mission staff and their dependents diagnosed with the flu virus under our duty of care obligations, but not to British nationals."
The document admits that France would supply preventive medicine to its overseas citizens while Britons will be told to fend for themselves.
My hobby is anthropology - archaeology and in this discipline I am a catastrophist. This could be the only worldwide natural catastrophy in my life time, I'm 62.
BTW, I think we can learn a lot by watching closely what happens in the UK, how they plan and their reaction to certain circumstances. It could give an indicator of how things will go here in the US.
your on your own
And don't worry. Like the last 'impending catastrophe' your government is pissing away billions preparing for it.
L
All I know is that I won't count on FEMA for anything. We keep at least 6 weeks worth of food in the house for 3 people.
I though they were looking at other methods instead of eggs. What is the CDC presently saying about the Bird Flu?
what are some canned items that can be eaten without cooking that have substantial (year+) shelf lives, if you have any ideas?
water is easy to prepare for, but I have never cooked in my life and doubt dominos will be open in a problem scenario.
We've figued out that the best bet is to buy things like creamed corn because we won't eat it unless our lives actually depend on it.
In reality we just rotate our stuff like stock on the grocery store. We aren't too worried about cooking because we have propane and I know how to build a fire.
"All I know is that I won't count on FEMA for anything. We keep at least 6 weeks worth of food in the house for 3 people."
I save a fortune by keeping about 3 months ahead.
I buy on sale, and in large amounts, based on the shelf life of the item. Tuna for example I keep up to about a 3 to 4 year supply, when I see it 3 cans for a dollar I'll pull out a 20 dollar bill and buy 60 cans. Only suckers and the unprepared pay 69 and 89 cents apiece for those same cans. This kind of shopping works for toilet paper, canned chili, canned vegetables etc. I hate shopping, so instead of hunting rabbits, I hunt Mastodons.
Which is what most of us should do - a few cans at a time - The Mormon Church has, for decades, urged it's members to have a years supply of food and supplies ahead, rotating to keep them updated.
This helps in time of personal emergencies, like illness, loss of job, etc - but will be crucial in a scenario like an epidemic.
The Lord helps them than help themselves...We SHOULD have supplies on hand...take some responsibility for ourselves.
It helps that I keep a large garden and can lots of veggies too. I can't get out into the woods very well but I can fish.
That's the same CDC that just a few years ago was stumping for gun bans due to the health epidemic from gun violence, right?
Also, good site with lots of info and forum to ask questions: Self Reliance- Backwoods Home
Y2K was not a problem precisely because corporations spent millions preparing for it. The company I worked for started preparing around 1990. They handle most of the mortgages in the country, and I suspect everyone continues to get statements.
I keep my dogs, wife, and roomate well fed for a reason.
Canned corn 5 years, canned tuna 5 years, sugar, salt indefinite. My favorite canned chili says, best by January 14, 2008 so I bought a two year supply cheap. The dates given are very conservative, the truth is, any canned food is edible even 50 years later as long as it stays sealed. What happens to old canned food is after very long times the quality of the food slips, and the nutrition fades. Starkist tuna guarantees their tuna is perfect for 5 years under any storage conditions( the cooler,the better for all food), that means it is plenty good for much more than 5 years, and this is true of most goods. Get used to looking for the best by dates, and buying accordingly.
I'd recommend stocking up on Chef Boy Ar Dee canned pastas. There's nothing to cook. Just dump it in a pot and warm it up. Then eat, if you can stomach it.
L
LOL!
"Which is what most of us should do - a few cans at a time - The Mormon Church has, for decades, urged it's members to have a years supply of food and supplies ahead, rotating to keep them updated."
I'm not Mormon, but above my 3 month supply of daily foods I keep a one year supply of wheat, dried beans and such. I can't imagine in America ever needing all that, but If something did hit, I am in a position to help the people that live around me with simple meals of beans and coarse bread, and a lot of knowledge that will help my neighbors.
We keep at least 6 weeks worth of food in the house for 3 people.
Me too. My neighbors and some of my family was amazed when Katrina hit and the electricity was out for seven days, no gasoline and etc, the only thing I screwed up was the AC. I didn't check to see if the portable AC's I had bought for the occasion would run off the generators. They didn't, man, was it hot. That was the one hole in my plans that has been corrected.
Those who are planning on letting the government take care of them need only look at their super record during Katrina.
what are some canned items that can be eaten without cooking that have substantial (year+) shelf lives, if you have any ideas?
Then that's all you better be eating too,or they will lynch you.
The Mormon's adice is very good ,if everyone had reasonable reserves there would be no run on the stores before every snowstorm or other prediction,AND in case of disater food and water for survival,if not comfort would already be in the affected area.
Canned mild chili,tuna,soups,beanspeanut butter,sugar,salt,flour,and a small campstove don't cost that much.A 5 gallon or 18lb propane can of fuel can do a lot of cooking.
Best way is constantly rotated stock of what you normally eat rather than something you will throw out or worse find is too old when you need it. Believe it or not,some people stocked up on frozen food for Y2K.
Dried beans are good. In fact my family lived on these, with an occassional chicken, or smoked/salted pork.
I have lettuce, onions, garlic, herbs, a few tomatos, and some green peppers growing now. I'll home can a lot of corn, green beans, beets and stuff this summer. Anything I can get my hands on. Plus, canned deer meat is my favorite way to eat deer.
If I needed to, I could go outside a shoot a squirrel, a deer, or a rabbit. Frog legs are good too.
A country gal can survive :)
Canned corn 5 years, canned tuna 5 years, sugar, salt indefinite.
My favorite canned chili says, best by January 14, 2008 so I bought a two year supply cheap.
The dates given are very conservative, the truth is, any canned food is edible even 50 years later as long as it stays sealed.
What happens to old canned food is after very long times the quality of the food slips, and the nutrition fades.
Starkist tuna guarantees their tuna is perfect for 5 years under any storage conditions( the cooler,the better for all food), that means it is plenty good for much more than 5 years, and this is true of most goods.
Get used to looking for the best by dates, and buying accordingly.
bookmark for later printing.
"I'd recommend stocking up on Chef Boy Ar Dee canned pastas. There's nothing to cook. Just dump it in a pot and warm it up. Then eat, if you can stomach it."
Unfortunately canned foods with pasta in them should be used by the dates on the can.
Canned pasta doesn't have a good shelf life.
I asked someone high up in HR in a large hospital system (Oregon)what they had planned in case the bird flu caused problems. Nothing, no plans what so ever, not even any discussion!
Those of us that are driven to help, have to always be prepared.
We've got weeks worth of long shelf life foods in the pantry as well as cases of bottled water.
Remember FIFO is your friend!
I would have recommended Heater Meals but they're pretty pricey here in the US. I bet shipping to Panama would be a killer.
L
"You expect your neighbors to be thankful for beans and coarse bread ?
Then that's all you better be eating too,or they will lynch you."
What I am most prepared for is stopping any silliness from getting started in my proximity.
There were a lot of people from different departments and I don't have my notes with me on who said what. Basically it was don't eat raw chicken/birds or handle sick or dead birds. Seek treatment. Medication is more effective with earlier treatment. Hospitals should have a stock of gloves, gowns and masks.
us suckers wouldnt be caught dead eating that volume of tuna as the mercury is biocumulative
article here
You may want to keep an eye on this chart. There are quite a few '?' marks on it that I don't like.We know that cats and dogs can be infected. I've already 'laid-in' all my poultry and other meat products.
In Backwoods Home Magazine, in the "Ask Jackie" column she once gave directions on pressure canning dried Pintos.
The recipe was ( I think) 1 cup pintos, 1/2 teaspoon or so salt, hot water, then pressure can in 1 Qt jars.
This is a beautiful recipe, because in a large pressure canner, 2 hours of fuel, supplies 8 quarts of cooked, canned beans, which is perfect when there is no refrigeration.
On sale dried Pintos cost 25 to 33 cents per pound.
"us suckers wouldnt be caught dead eating that volume of tuna as the mercury is biocumulative"
Living in California, I should have thought of that.
The test at the link said I can safely eat 3 1/2 cans a week, or 186 cans per year.
I eat at least two of those flat cans of tuna each day. I had a test run for mercury & heavy metals in my body and I had a 2 on a scale of 1 - 10 for mercury which my doctor said was good. It's the expensive Albacore tuna that has the most mercury because they are the oldest and have more time to accumulate mercury. The cheaper (dark meat) tuna are the younger tuna and have substancially less mercury.
Even if the chicken eggs are available the medium is not very good for H5N1 vaccine production: The virus kills the eggs.
The industry is trying to switch to cell-based culturing -- which could increase production rates -- but at this point the target virus strain is a matter of guesswork more than science. The best that can be reasonably assured right now is partial immunity.
I posted an article the other day where the UK had already designated mass grave burial areas for 300,000 people. They were still working on the details of how to identify each individual to be buried in these graves.
"If I needed to, I could go outside a shoot a squirrel, a deer, or a rabbit. Frog legs are good too. "
My brother has that idea as well, but something I always point out is,
the game you see today would disappear quickly, when everybody in the region started hunting it all at once, without rules or restraint.
What wasn't killed, would be run off.
Why in the world would you 'can' dried beans? I just store them dry.
If my neighbors aren't happy with what I have to share and try 'lynching' anyone I have a large supply of copper and lead I'll be more than happy to share with them.
I plan on chowing down on some deep frozen sirloin steaks and other assorted hunks of dead cow first before I start dipping into the larder.
Anyone rude enough to attempt to force me to 'share' will recieve a generous portion of the above mentioned metals.
L
British ducks and geese could be bird flu carriers
A UN expert has issued a fresh warning after the death of a swan but the danger to humans is low
John Aglionby in Hanoi, Jo Revill and Lorna Martin
Sunday April 9, 2006
The Observer (UK)
The death of a Scottish swan from bird flu suggests that other infected birds are flying around Britain, but the chances of any human contracting the virus are still extraordinary low, the head of the United Nations' global fight against the disease said last night.
More than 70 animal health experts were sent out this weekend into the six-mile surveillance zone around the coastal village of Cellardyke in Fife, where the swan was found, to collect bird carcasses, photograph them and send them for laboratory sampling. Scottish farmers within the zone were told to keep their hens indoors and diagnostic laboratories were working today to test eight other birds for the H5N1 virus.
David Nabarro, the UN's chief co-ordinator on bird flu, told The Observer: 'The one swan is a good indicator there will be other species, like ducks and geese, that are flying around carrying H5N1, excreting it in their faeces and therefore also capable of getting infection into domestic poultry and into other species.'
Nabarro said Britons should trust the government because the UK's preparedness plan was considered 'one of the best in the world'. He advised people not to stop eating poultry 'because the poultry, by and large, that you buy is remarkably safe, and if you cook it properly you kill anything that's inside it'.
Thousands of people across the country have reported dead birds to the authorities since Britain's first case of bird flu, in the native mute swan, was reported three days ago. A hotline set up by Defra, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has received more than 4,000 calls in two days from members of the public saying they have spotted a dead bird.
But so far only the swan has tested positive for the virus, although more than 1,000 birds and ducks from more than 30 sites across the country have been checked in the months since Europe began to be affected by the disease.
Andre Farrar, a spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), said: 'There's an expectation that we're about to see a great array of new cases, and we may or may not. Nobody has any idea which way this will go.'
The Cellardyke swan, found on the village's harbour slipway two weeks ago, was almost certainly infected last February and had probably been dead for three weeks, experts believe.
Nabarro, who spoke to The Observer in Hanoi, which he is visiting as part of a tour of South East Asia, home to most of the 109 people who have died from the disease, said the British public would find it hard to understand just how low the risk level is, despite the concerns. 'I'm not surprised that people are quite scared in the UK and other countries with the arrival of swans that are dead and are found to have H5N1 on board,' he said. 'It's very hard for individuals to handle a rare infection, because they're always going to say "Well, I could be the unfortunate one, even if it is a very, very low possibility". On the other way round, many of us buy lottery tickets, though the chance of winning is incredibly low, but that doesn't prevent us.
'I want people to trust the UK government, to follow the advice, particularly of the health departments concerned, because theirs are some of the best plans in the world, for avian influenza preparedness and the pandemic preparedness, and to go on eating poultry.'
At a press conference yesterday, Scotland's chief veterinary officer, Charles Milne, said: 'We have taken a huge number of calls from people reporting dead wild birds. These are being responded to, but we want to stress to the public that this is routine surveillance, not suspect cases of the disease.
'This is why we are carrying out ongoing surveillance, but we will not drop our guard. We will continue to work to get a handle on this situation.'
The restrictions on farmers in the surveillance zone are likely to be in place for at least the next three weeks, but would last for longer if other cases were found.
The worries about bird flu have also had an impact on pet owners, particularly as it is known that cats can catch and carry the virus. Vets and animal charities urged owners this weekend not to abandon their pets because of the disease, after seeing this happen in affected areas of France and Germany.
The RSPCA revealed it dealt with six cases of abandoned hens last week, which officers believe were pets rather than bred commercially. A spokeswoman, Becky Hawkes, said: 'It is of significant concern to us that people are worried about their birds and also their cats. We know that cats have been abandoned in France and Germany and, apart from the terrible risk it leaves the pets in, people should realise this is a crime.'
Despite assurances from supermarket chains that sales of poultry and eggs have not been affected, others are not convinced. Ian Miller, owner of Scotland's largest organic farm shop and restaurant, which is on the edge of Britain's wild bird risk area, said: 'It's a lovely sunny day during the Easter holidays. Normally we would be very busy, but it is dead.
'Even although there is zero risk to public health, there has been so much bad publicity and people are very cautious. I have no doubt that people will be put off buying chickens,' said Miller.
He feared for the future of his farm, Jamesfield, near Cupar in Perthshire, and spoke of the irony that his efforts to focus on quality rather than mass-produced quantity could be among the first victims of the scare.
'I don't think loyal customers who have been buying from us for 20 years will be put off, but this will slow up the trend in people going organic. Only one swan has died, but people get the wrong message that poultry is unsafe.'
Sardines/herring
cheap
portable
Hg free
hi in omega 3
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