Basketball road trip– comment on pandemic preparation
We’re on a basketball road trip. Will be back on Saturday.
Yes, the statement in the last graf is a bit extreme.
Dr. Levi said that using the National Guard to set up temporary clinics or move pharmaceutical supplies might make sense.
“But they’re not there,” he said. “The people who know how to run field hospitals are in Iraq.”
Sorry, Dr. Levi. The men and women at BAMC, Ft Sam Houston know how to set up and run field hospitals. There are regulars, reservists, and National Guardsmen there. I guarantee we have National Guard troops in the US, right now, who can man field hospitals.
Perhaps Dr. Levi means the National Guard medical unit in his own home town or state– but the context is unclear.
The comment is a push comment– a mini-editorial in the NY Times. In fact, his comment is either a bit misleading or gives an incomplete picture of the national response. National Guard truck units would move pharmaceutical supplies — or civilian truck companies hired in the emergency. If a pandemic struck, we would mobilizes all available medical personnel could run temporary clinics.
Never miss a chance to push Iraq as an issue–as a local emergency planner for pandemic flu preparation in a Washington state county, if Dr. Levi thinks the are remotely enough national guard units to go around, EVEN IF WE WERE NOT INVOLVED IN IRAQ, he simply can’t count. Moreover, whatever antivirals or pandemic flu supplies that will be available for deployment will be deployed, first, through the Strategic National Stockpile, using contracted shipping. It is apparent Dr. Levi doesnt know very much about pandemic flu preparation There is also a clinker in the NYT article; to wit: while the mortality rate is currently over 50%, it is expected to drop to about 2% as the virus will attenuate when it undergoes the genetic changes to enable person to person transmission. All of the CDC’s planning scenarios assume the 2% mortality rate.
Comment by rjarango — 2/2/2007 @ 11:14 am
A colleague left a copy of this New York Times article on my desk; he’d scrawled across it, “They never pass up an opportunity to inject Iraq into an article, no matter how irrelevant.” Indeed. The bias is never ending. The article was chock-full of mind-bendingly stupid comments from libtards, lamenting the impact measures aimed at containing a pandemic would have on the poor and downtrodden. Oh, and let’s not forget the kids. An “expert” said that it was a bad idea to close the schools during a pandemic, as it would adversely effect the education of underprivileged children by denying them much needed classroom time. Of course, dying might also have an impact on their edjimication. It brings to mind the old joke about how the NY Times would report the impending destruction of Manhattan by a meteor: “New York targetted by killer meteor: Minorities, children, poor most affected.”
Comment by Mike Lief — 2/3/2007 @ 12:16 pm
Austin Bay Blog… …
Trackback by Three Br0thers — 2/3/2007 @ 8:18 pm
Now that the mavens have fixed the blog, I can finally post this remark! Been trying for a week! (BTW, Austin, you need to put a link up to allow registration for those of us to unable to figure out how to do it!) I was struck by the fact that the writers of this report failec to note that, if the pandemic strikes (as surely it must!) it will all be George Bush’s fault! I would assume that they will be punished for this oversight? Perhaps they will have to shave their beards.
Comment by AF Dad — 2/8/2007 @ 8:27 pm