Posted on 06/02/2004 8:55:07 PM PDT by FairOpinion
SAN FRANCISCO, June 2 (Reuters) - California is not prepared for a major public health crisis such as an attack with biological agents, and in some instances planning for bioterrorism is setting back other public health efforts, according to a report released on Wednesday.
California's public health agencies have made progress planning for emergencies such as an outbreak of smallpox, but are poorly coordinated and "not uniformly capable of taking care of infectious disease outbreaks," according to the report by private think-tank, the RAND Corp.
The report said that the most populous U.S. state would respond to a serious outbreak of an infectious disease or biological attack in a haphazard fashion.
"I suspect California is indicative of the rest of country, particularly in terms of unevenness," said RAND researcher Nicole Lurie. "If this happened in a lot of places at once, the state has limited resources to respond.... Certainly in the beginning of this, people are on their own."
"California was thought to be ahead of the pack, but when you look under the covers, you find a lot of variation," Lurie added. "There is room for improvement across the board."
RAND researchers recommended state lawmakers appoint a commission to identify steps to strengthen the state's public health work force and to improve ties between the state and local governments to coordinate public health efforts.
An additional $96 million annually is needed to help California's 61 local public health systems better respond to bioterrorism and outbreaks of naturally occurring infectious disease, the report said.
Federal funds allocated to California since Sept. 11, 2001, to strengthen its public health system have been slow in getting to the local governments, and the state's own fiscal troubles "present an obstacle" to improving its public health system, according to RAND.
The think-tank also said California cannot afford to forget about routine public health issues.
Some California communities, bracing to respond to bioterrorism preparedness and faced with budget cuts, have diverted attention from other public health efforts, including programs to prevent teen pregnancies, according to RAND.
And now I'd like to get on my soapbox: This is why the government should not prevent those who want it, to obtain smallpox vaccine.
What if we do have an attack? If a fair number of people would be vaccinated, it would slow the spread of the disease.
As it is, literally thousands, or more will die needlessly, before they get the disease under control.
It is not unthinkable for terrorists to spread the disease in multiple cities all at once, and having hundreds or more people sick, before the disease get diagnosed.
Especially since muncipalities have to spend tax money to change their seals ir else be sued by the ACLU. What a waste of money that could be otherwise used for lawful purposes.
In the meantime, I am just reading an article about $BILLION (wiht a B) is spent on "medical care" for prisoners in California, which includes getting them cosmetic surgery, such as some guy (yes, guy) in prison wanted breast reduction surgery and sure enough, he got it -- at our expense.
Off topic -- I just checked if there is any more news on the almond recall. Only that more almonds continue to be recalled, but no info about any contamination they actually found.
Check your freepmail.
I just did after my post -- you can check your too.
And let me know if there is any news.
Not a bad idea but what makes you sure that smallpox would be the disease of choice?
There's a disease in the California Courts and legislature that needs to be taken care of.
Actually let's hope it's smallpox -- at least we have vaccines against it. What if it's ebola?
But if we had vaccines, that may deter them in even trying it, if they know we have been immunized, or if they did try it, it wouldn't get very far.
Of course I don't want to speculate on the more virulent version of smallpox, that some think the Soviets developed, against which our vaccines are inadequate.
Also, don't forget about those racist Latino legislators in California who are so adament about providing driver's licenses to their fellow Latinos, the illegal aliens. They sure have their priorities in order, don't they?
Maybe if they spent less time and resources on the killing of infants and on removing the tiny crosses from the state seal they would be prepared for these little details. I think California has a serious problem getting its priorities in order. (Not that it is by any means the only state with that problem).
My feeling is that these guys are very clever and very, very viscious, a nasty combination. If they succeed in killing tens or hundreds of thousands of us, and they turn out to be Muslim extremists, what options would we have besides killing tens or hundreds of millions of Muslims in response?
I wonder how many of those who are stonewalling mass smallpox vaccination have already been immunized themselves ?? Does anyone know who is responsible for the "stonewalling"??
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