4um: Bush says federal troops might be needed to help stop bird flu pandemic

Title: Bush says federal troops might be needed to help stop bird flu pandemic
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Published: Dec 05, 2005
Author: AP
Post Date: 2009-04-30 14:27:16 by Jethro Tull
Keywords: None
Views: 350
Comments: 13

Bush says federal troops might be needed to help stop bird flu pandemic

JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
AP Worldstream
10-05-2005
Dateline: WASHINGTON
President George W. Bush, stirring debate on the worrisome possibility of a bird flu pandemic, suggested federal troops might be dispatched to enforce quarantines in areas where the killer virus might emerge.

Bush asserted aggressive action could be needed to prevent a potentially crippling U.S. outbreak of an avian flu strain that is sweeping through Asian poultry and causing experts to fear it could mutate to pass human to human and become the next deadly pandemic. Citing worries that state and local authorities might be unable to contain and deal with such an outbreak, Bush asked Congress to give him the authority to call in the military.

So far the virus has infected few individuals, almost all of whom are known to have contracted it from birds. At least 65 people have died, and tens of millions of birds either died or have been culled. The flu virus mutates easily, but no evidence has been found that the current H5N1 has mutated into a form that might pass person-to-person.

Doctors say such a mutation would be catastrophic because human immune systems have built no defense against the strain.

Bush already has indicated he wants to give the armed forces the lead responsibility for conducting search-and-rescue operations and sending in supplies after massive natural disasters or terror attacks, which could require changes in current law. Even some military leaders have reacted to skeptically to the idea.

As described by Bush on Tuesday, it raised the startling-to-some image of soldiers cordoning off communities hit by disease.

"The president ought to have all ... assets on the table to be able to deal with something this significant," Bush said during a 55 minute question-and-answer session with reporters in the White House's Rose Garden.

Dr. Irwin Redlener, associate dean of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and director of its National Center for Disaster Preparedness, called the president's suggestion an "extraordinarily Draconian measure" that would be unnecessary if the nation had built the capability for rapid vaccine production, ensured a large supply of anti-virals like Tamiflu and not allowed the degradation of the public health system.

"The translation of this is martial law in the United States," Redlener said.

The key question he introduced into the debate Tuesday was who would control it: the states that by law now have the main responsibility for containing an outbreak within their borders, or the federal government, which typically has been in charge of keeping diseases from entering the country.

Bush signed an executive order in April adding pandemic influenza to the government's list of communicable diseases for which quarantine is authorized.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gives these statistics for three such pandemics occurred last century:

_In 1918-19, "Spanish flu" killed up to 50 million worldwide and more than 500,000 in the United States.

_In 1957-58, "Asian flu" killed about 70,000 in the United States.

_In 1968-69, "Hong Kong flu" killed about 34,000 in the United States.

White House spokesman Trent Duffy said the president envisioned possible military control of the quarantine process only "in the most extreme circumstances" and when state and local resources were overwhelmed.

Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said the military has not been asked to develop such a plan, but he noted that the military maintains relevant capabilities such as mobile medical units, hospital ships and the ability to create field hospitals quickly.

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On the Net:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pandemics page: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/gen-info/pandemics.htm

"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams

It's a good thing that posse comitatus and habeas corpus won't get in their way of keeping us safe !

The AP is a conspiracy theory source. Bush did not really say this. This is a conspiracy theory. This is black helicopter and tin foil hat stuff. For the REAL news, please go to CNN.com and FoxNews.com.

It is worth tracking the progress of "Emergency Health Laws." Since around 2002, there have been some draconian laws put on the books, in roughly 33 states.

Just speculating, but Alaska's tough laws may well be designed to help keep people out, those fleeing the lower 48 in case the swinedung and guano really, really hit the fan.

One scary thought is that in 1918, the Flu appeared in the Spring but didn't go "viral" until the Fall.

Ever the conspiratorialist, I suspect that this was a trial run by "them" and I expect the real thing to come along at any time - likely within the next year or so. Or, it could be that this is the real thing, just the precursor to what will happen later this year, in an important parallel to the course of the flu pandemic of nearly a century ago.~Edgar J. Steele