Click here for the full N.Y. Times Article: Bush Plan Shows U.S. Is Not Ready for Deadly Flu
The New York Times today reported on the Bush administration's plan to deal with an outbreak of pandemic flu. The Administration report shows that the United States is woefully unprepared for what could become the worst disaster in the nation's history. This makes the Hurricane Katrina disaster look like a model of efficiency and preparedness.
The plan says a large outbreak that began in Asia would probably reach the U.S. within "a few months or even weeks" because of modern travel patterns.
Hospitals would be overwhelmed and riots would engulf vaccination clinics, and power and food would be in short supply, according to the plan (which was leaked to the New York Times).
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." This, coupled with the fact that the United States dropped the ball on ordering mass amounts of the drug to treat the 'flu, means we better cross our fingers. . .because that is what our government did. . .until this very late hour.
---o0o---
3 comments:
Jack, I gotta tell you that when I read that NY Times article my mouth started to slowly drop down..It takes a second to think that it's not a work of fiction, or the opening from " The Stand".
If the worst case scenario actually comes to any fruition, the Nation itself will be crippled and I'm sure small governments will fall. It is grimly apoctalyptic, and definitely something to hope, ( and if you do, pray ) that the Powers That Be get a plan in order, or this pandemic never reaches that level.
If not, stock up on them canned goods and your Flintstone Vitamens.
I know...and yet, somehow the story isn't getting any real traction yet--
I mean, we could have bought our way out of a disaster by stockpiling medicine, and we waited. This is no hurricane. . .we have seen ti coming now literally for years. And we sat on our hands.
W oughta put Michael Brown on the Avian Flu case. I hear he's available.
Post a Comment