Posted on 10/04/2005 12:02:27 PM PDT by areafiftyone
WASHINGTON, Oct 4 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush asked Congress on Tuesday to consider giving him powers to use the military to enforce quarantines in case of an avian influenza epidemic.
He said the military, and perhaps the National Guard, might be needed to take such a role if the feared H5N1 bird flu virus changes enough to cause widespread human infection.
"If we had an outbreak somewhere in the United States, do we not then quarantine that part of the country? And how do you, then, enforce a quarantine?" Bush asked at a news conference.
"It's one thing to shut down airplanes. It's another thing to prevent people from coming in to get exposed to the avian flu. And who best to be able to effect a quarantine?" Bush added.
"One option is the use of a military that's able to plan and move. So that's why I put it on the table. I think it's an important debate for Congress to have."
Bird flu has killed more than 60 people in four Asian nations since late 2003 and has been found in birds in Russia and Europe.
Experts fear that the H5N1 bird flu virus, which appears to be highly fatal when it infects people, will develop the ability to pass easily from person to person and would cause a pandemic that would kill millions.
"And I think the president ought to have all ... assets on the table to be able to deal with something this significant," Bush said.
He noted that some governors may object to the federal government commandeering the National Guard, which is under state command in most circumstances.
POLICE DUTIES BANNED
"But Congress needs to take a look at circumstances that may need to vest the capacity of the president to move beyond that debate. And one such catastrophe or one such challenge could be an avian flu outbreak," Bush said.
The active duty military is currently forbidden from undertaking law enforcement duties by the federal Posse Comitatus Act.
That law, passed in 1878 after the U.S. Civil War, does not prohibit National Guard troops under state control from doing police work. But, unless the law is changed, it would keep them from doing so if they were activated by Washington under federal control.
While the law allows the president to order the military to take control and do police work in an extreme emergency, the White House has been traditionally reluctant to usurp state powers.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters he was not aware of any current planning by the military to help respond to a flu pandemic.
But he noted that after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf region, Bush had asked Congress to consider giving the military control over initial response in dealing with major natural or other domestic disasters.
"Obviously the (Defense) Department has a tremendous amount of capability in a lot of areas. And we are a large force," Whitman said, noting also that the military had deployed field hospitals to Louisiana after the hurricanes.
Health experts are working to develop vaccines that would protect against the H5N1 strain of flu, because current influenza vaccines will not.
And countries are also developing stockpiles of drugs that can reduce the risk of serious disease or even sometimes prevent infection -- but supplies and manufacturing capacity are both limited.
Bush said he was involved in planning for an influenza pandemic, which experts say will definitely come, although they cannot predict when, or whether it will be H5N1 or some other virus. (Additional reporting by Maggie Fox)
What about an entire family that has every member down sick...just let them die because they can't fend for themselves? You're not think about this in a massive sense. You're looking at it where only one or two people are sick. Think hundreds of thousands...at the same time.
Do you have sources for ANY of this? I have yet to read anything about it going person to person. I've also read that one of the things that HASNT happened is migratory birds carrying it to other continents.
Well actually, there are already pre-approved plans in the Pentagon that deal with all sorts of nation-wide "issues" within the borders of the country. One of them is insurrection, another is an accidental release from a NIH Class IV facility (easily amendable to include a pandemic), accidental release of a SNP physics package, etc, etc, etc. They even have code-word release authority. All it takes is a phone call from NCA and your "right to move freely" vanishes....period. And the political chips will fall where they may after the incident is over.
No he isn't. For example, he wouldn't consider using them to actually secure the southern border.
OOOOOH! That's gonna leave a mark!
Nicely put! If theres ANY place we are vulnerable, it's with the unchecked masses that ILLEGALLY Infiltrate our Southern Border!
How many have already crossed and are infected...all for the sake of cheap lettuce and clean toilets? How many more may cross, and overwhelm all the border States' healthcare systems?
You haven't read the thread, right?
We are most vulnerable on the north, right now, as a matter of fact, with regard to Avian flu.
There is currently an outbreak of a "mystery illness" in Toronto, which has an enormous asian population. No one knows what it is. Supposedly, it is negative for SARS and Avian flu, although both those illnesses are well known for false negatives if samples are collected too early, at the wrong body location, etc.
See post #214. There are some very extensive threads already on this subject. Search for avian flu. Ex-Texan and Judith Ann are excellent on this subject.
Recombinomics http://www.recombinomics.com/in_the_news.html is an excellent portal sight for the latest updates. You can find the figures for the fatality rate there. In a pandemic, from what I have read, the fatality rate would not remain that high.
From what I have seen, there is proof of transmission of the bird flu by migrating birds at least into Russia, and possibly into northern Europe.
I have a relative who works at the CDC surveillance center,,she has been talking of this for months, says the CDC is in a high alert mode, they think it is coming, this year, to a town near all of us. She is no alarmist but has said if cases happen here, hole up with months of food and don't leave home. Apparently air travel will stop as soon as cases start, schools will be closed and hell will follow. They don't know yet how the virus will act in large populations and hope the death rate won't be what they are seeing in those who contracted it from birds. It is a matter of time.
This is no joke, no small thing. And parenthetically my grandfather died in the 1918 flu, he was well in the morning and dead that night. My father was 14 and spent months riding his horse around rural Louisiana burying the dead and tending to the sick. He was 14.
The bird flu is not known to go from person to person ,,yet.
No vaccine for this strain as it has not lept to people from birds yet.
The amount of disinformation on this thread is astounding.
I don't think some people are taking what could be...serious enough. Maybe they can't grasp how deadly a situtation we could find ourselves in.
THe latest word on Tamiflu which worked initally on Bird flue is that it no longer works, there has been resistance developing. Symmetrel worked initially but is not wrking now.
Tamiflu was the last drug to work and now it is looking weak.
There are limited cases of person to person transmission, there's a link to the New England Journal of Medicine article earlier on this thread.
I posted a link to the CDC information and a couple of paragraphs.
Some don't think this constitutes "proof" of h2h transmission, but it is certainly strongly suggestive of a beginning of h2h in a limited way.
Gosh, you sound so impatient. It must be so much fun for you when people die terrible prolonged deaths. But the waiting must be frustrating for you.
Seek help.
What disinformation?
If it gets that bad, why stop with a measly quarantine? Why not go all out and firebomb all affected areas? I mean, you're either with us or you're with the virus. We need to fight the virus in those affected areas so we don't have to fight it here.
The drug Co is working 24 hours a day making as much as possible. Govt's are buying it up. There is still not enought and it is probably moot anyway.
Tamiflu is being used at double the dose, in some cases, I have read.
In some cases, Tamiflu and Amantadine (which target different areas and functions of the H5N1 virus) are being used together. This may or may not help overcome some of the developing resistance.
The vaccine is a guess estimate of what might work. They don't know if it will. The virus hasn't spread to people yet.
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