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Posted on 10/04/2005 11:55:32 AM PDT by Southside_Chicago_Republican
WASHINGTON - President Bush, increasingly concerned about a possible avian flu pandemic, revealed Tuesday that any part of the country where the virus breaks out could likely be quarantined and that he is considering using the military to enforce it.
"The best way to deal with a pandemic is to isolate it and keep it isolated in the region in which it begins," he said during a wide-ranging Rose Garden news conference.
The president was asked if his recent talk of giving the military the lead in responding to large natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and other catastrophes was in part the result of his concerns that state and local personnel aren't up to the task of a flu outbreak.
"Yes," he replied.
After the bungled initial federal response to Katrina, Bush suggested putting the Pentagon in charge of search-and-rescue efforts in times of a major terrorist attack or similarly catastrophic natural disaster. He has argued that the armed forces have the ability to quickly mobilize the equipment, manpower and communications capabilities needed in times of crisis.
But such a shift could require a change in law, and some in Congress and the states worry it would increase the power of the federal government at the expense of local control.
Bush made clear that the potential for an outbreak of avian flu is much on his mind, and has had him talking with "as many (world) leaders as I could find," consulting a book he read over the summer on the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic that killed 40 million and meeting with staff and experts.
"I have thought through the scenarios of what an avian flu outbreak could mean," he said.
He acknowledged that a quarantine — an idea sure to alarm many in the public — is no small thing for the government to undertake and that enforcing it would be tricky.
"It's one thing to shut down airplanes," Bush said. "It's another thing to prevent people from coming in to get exposed to the avian flu."
He urged Congress to give him the ability to use the military, if needed.
"I think the president ought to have all ... assets on the table to be able to deal with something this significant," he said.
As a standby precaution, Bush in April signed an executive order that added pandemic influenza to the government's list of communicable diseases for which a quarantine is authorized. It gives the government legal authority to detain or isolate a passenger arriving in the United States to prevent an infection from spreading.
At the time the order was signed, a spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the Public Health Service would probably recommend home quarantines when possible, but said they would be voluntary. It's unclear whether the federal takeover of state and local quarantine powers that Bush discussed Tuesday would be limited just to travel or involve broader home quarantines as well.
Bush also said he has been urging world leaders to improve reporting on outbreaks of the virus, and exploring how to speed the production of a spray, now in limited supply, that "can maybe help arrest the spread of the disease."
"One of the issues is how do we encourage the manufacturing capacity of the country, and maybe the world, to be prepared to deal with the outbreak of a pandemic?" he said.
Yet it is the pill Tamiflu, which makes symptoms less severe and shortens the duration of the illness, that is in short supply — not its harder-to-use inhaled competitor Relenza.
Experts agree there will certainly be another flu pandemic — a new human flu strain that goes global. However, it is unknown when or how bad that global epidemic will be — or whether the H5N1 bird flu strain now circulating in Asian poultry will be its origin.
Just in case, experts are tracking the avian flu, which has swept through poultry populations in large swaths of Asia since 2003, jumped to humans and killed at least 65 people.
Most human cases have been linked to a contact with sick birds, but the World Health Organization has warned the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans — changing it from a bird virus to a human pandemic flu strain.
So why aren't we quarantining Indonesia now to prevent the spread of the virus to the US. I guess we are just going to let them infect our country, and then use the military to quarantine us.
Shows great wisdom Tom.
Just posted this on another similar thread:
There is no vaccine for the Avian flu. It is still mutating/recombining so it's not possible to make a vaccine for it yet.
If anyone wants to read about it, read here - with info and commentary by some very knowldegeable and educated freepers and articles from all over:
Avian Flu Surveillance Project ^
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1399613/posts
And apparently Tamiflu may not be effective against the Avian flu.
Thanks for the info.
I've wondered about that too. These diseases almost always start in some third-world backwater. Why not contain the disease at its source by restricting travel to and from those place until the threat blows over?
Bump.
I've been reading about this flu for some time; learned more about how flus develop than I ever dreamed about. It looks like a guaranteed serious threat. Whether it will devlop the ability to transmit from human to human is the key, most of those who are experts in the field think it will - just a question of when. And if/when it does, it will kill a great many people. Right now the fatality rate as far as they can tell is about 50%. Even if it goes down to 5% that's millions of people.
The tetanus shot is coupled with the diptheria shot. There is currently a limited supply of the diptheria, tetanus, pertussis shot - but if you are in the recommended groups, do go and get it!!
Indiana had the largest measles outbreak this year. 33 cases in 2 counties. It was in an unimmunized community (didn't believe in vaccinations). Minnesota has a case of polio - once again, infant wasn't immunized...
Pertussis is a big deal... talk to the moms whose infants have died... Visit the Immunization Action Coalition website for great information and personal stories about how these vaccine preventable diseases have destroyed lives...
PS - I believe that quarantines should be enforced and not voluntary!!! People can be stupid, esp. when sick!
quick, call Dusty Hoffman and make a crappy movie about this. oh nevermind, already done.
The Stafford Act defines the federal response to emergency situations.
fyi ping
Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here
You have the CDC refusing to share info on this flu...very little vaccine which no one knows if it will work and a 55 % fatality rate. I guess we need the military to shoot the dying Americans who got shafted by their government who did not do the one thing they are mandated to do-national security. This flu certainly threatens national security.
I'm with ya Dawn,
I keep my Hurricane kit ready year round for any emergency. That includes food, gas, etc. I know it sounds like a paranoid approach, but having some security never hurts.
There are a lot of new and very real threats that are unprecedented.
What is the alternative for enforcing a quarantine in an outbreak of a epidemic with no effective medical treatment?
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