Saturday, October 24, 2009

GMAFB

Obama declares swine flu national emergency
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has signed a proclamation declaring swine flu a national emergency, the White House said Saturday.

"In keeping with the administration's proactive approach to H1N1 Flu, President Obama last night signed a proclamation declaring 2009-H1N1 Influenza a national emergency," it said in a statement. "The proclamation enhances the ability of our nation's medical treatment facilities to handle a surge in H1N1 patients by allowing, as needed, the waiver of certain standard federal requirements on a case-by-case basis."

Okay, so let me get this straight. This is a strain of flu that we've known about and tracked since April. In that time it's killed about a thousand people, far below what the non-swine flu normally claims. And based on this, we're declaring Hamthrax to be a National Emergency? Can someone explain this to me, please?

Because from where I'm sitting, this looks like yet another raw, naked power grab by the Sun King himself...

That is all.

14 comments:

Heath J said...

Never let a good emergency go to waste, or something like that..

It might have been that evil tilecrawler Rahm, come to think of it..

Mopar said...

Yeah, but the regular flu doesn't make your face melt off!

ZerCool said...

But it's not yet a "clear and present danger". That comes next.

Mike W. said...

He's just channeling Rahm Emmanuel

Anonymous said...

sounds as if the white house fascists are testing the water...

Irishdoh said...

Hamthrax... Another keyboard down the drain... Between you, AD, Lawdog and Tam, I am personally keeping Logitech in business...

Anonymous said...

True, it hasn't killed all that many yet. But this isn't even really flu season yet, and the infection numbers are FAR above what they should be for this time of year. I don't have the numbers right in front of me to cite properly, but they're easily available at CDC.
I think a large part of why this gets so much attention is because it's striking young and otherwise healthy people much harder than the typical seasonal flu does, and also due to its preference for striking pregnant women.

I love a conspiracy as much as the next guy, but I really don't see anything out of line with the new declaration.

What I *also* don't see, though, is how it will many any difference. Treatment is still the same, we're still short several million vaccine doses, and the best advice we can give is to wash your hands and stay away from sick people... except that they can be shedding virus for days before they know they're sick.

It's a bad situation, and likely to get worse.

Cargosquid said...

Go here and you'll find more:
http://www.schlockmercenary.com/blog/index.php/2009/10/22/this-just-in-whooping-oink/

along with a great comic.

* Hamthrax
* Hogthrax
* Spamthrax
* Tuporkulosis
* Porklio
* Cowpox oh wait that’s real
* Hogmumps
* The Other Yellow Fever
* Pigfluenza
* Mad Sow Disease
* Sowbola
* Sowmonella
* Spammonella
* Bacon AIDS
* Bacon Fever
* Baconator oh wait that’s at Wendy’s
* Whooping Oink
* Oinking Pneumonia
* Buboinking Pork

For you Star Wars fans:

* Gamorreanorhea

And the end-of-the-world scenarios for the epidemic?

* The Aporkalypse
* Hognarok

Ambulance Driver said...

"Hamthrax."

Snerk

Atom Smasher said...

I have just been referring to it as "pigsick", as in "So she's got the pigsick then?"

Jake (formerly Riposte3) said...

And from one of the comments at that Schlock Mercenary blog post:

"I used to say I’d get influenza when pigs fly. Unfortunately, swine flew."
-EricJamesStone

Anonymous said...

Might check here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/us/politics/25flu.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Short story: Bureaucratic declaration required so that hospitals in affected areas could implement disaster plans for dealing with large numbers of H1N1 patients without violating reimbursement or guidelines or EMTALA.

Why should you care? You've got kids --- and this seems to hit them hard, with the possibility of severe respiratory complications...

Nick

Jake (formerly Riposte3) said...

"Bureaucratic declaration required so that hospitals in affected areas could implement disaster plans for dealing with large numbers of H1N1 patients without violating reimbursement or guidelines or EMTALA."

Sorry, I have to call bulls**t on that. Any hospital can implement their disaster plans when they are overwhelmed, without the FedGov calling it a "National Emergency", and there are provisions in EMTALA for such situations. Governors can call a state of emergency if they have an epidemic in their states, and the President can back that declaration with one of his own, specific to that area, if needed.

Our local hospital in Blacksburg, VA didn't need a national emergency (or state or local emergency) declared to implement their disaster plan or take EMTALA shortcuts on April 16, because those provisions already exist. They (and the other local hospital in Radford) declared a disaster based on the number and severity of patients expected, and immediately implemented their disaster plan.

Hamthrax doesn't even need those shortcuts, because any epidemic will ramp up over a few days at least, not an hour or less, and, with rare exception, patients don't need immediate emergency transfer to a higher level facility.

One of the key requirements of EMTALA remains in effect even in a disaster: the need to verify that the receiving facility actually has room for the patient. It does no good to send someone off to another hospital because you don't have the personnel/beds/ability to treat them if the place you send them to doesn't either.

Also, if it's worthy of being a national emergency because of an anticipated "surge" of patients, why are we giving away 10% of our vaccine stocks to other countries before we have enough for our own people? Shouldn't we be vaccinating as many Americans as we can to try to reduce any "surge" as much as possible? As I said, BullS**t!

I do agree with (the first) Anonymous on one point: I don't really think it's a conspiracy. I think it's more likely a case of making it look like they're doing something, even if it doesn't really accomplish anything, or maybe an attempt to amplify the perception of a "health care crisis" as Congress gets closer to working out a "health care" bill (and possibly to distract the public from the fact that Congress is getting further and further away from the "health care" bill that Obama wanted).

Anonymous said...

Just some thoughts to fuel the fire...The Spanish flu of 1916 was an H1N1 variant.
If you get a "regular" flu vaccination....you will be covered for H1N1...
The "H1N1" flu that is strolling through our country is a new variant/mutation.

Steve