Okay, bird flu. (In about six months there will be a few movies on “Sci-fi” and “TBS,” plus three ‘reality’ shows on Fox such as “are you infected?” but till then you get to hear me bitch.)
I know this is CNN’s summary of what I hope is a real play for dealing with this issue. But I’m afraid it’s more of the same kind of “dealing with” that gave us a FEMA director like Michael Brown, who will probably be put in charge of this mess anyway.
So, ahem. Let’s look at some of the provisions:
Update quarantine laws
Has it been that long since we watched a couple million people spend twenty hours making a 100 mile drive from Houston to Anywhere Else? I guarantee you that if there is a confirmed case of Human Bird Flu in Houston we’ll see it again. Quarantine laws be damned, half these people are armed and the other half are crazy. Besides, we’ve seen our legislature in action (Texas, not Feds), if they’re lucky they’ll pass this by 2012. Hell, they aren’t even meeting for another two years, and calling a special session means it’ll cost money and keep our legislators away from their real estate and used car dealerships.
Work with utilities to keep the phones working and grocers to keep supplying food amid the certain panic.
They still haven’t fixed the problems that caused the Great Northeast Blackout of a few years ago, or the rolling brownouts in California. Give me a break. You quarantine people (if the first measure works) and see how long the lights stay on. By the way, how’s the power coming along on the Gulf Coast?
Face it, the days of stockpiling (like we used to do for bad weather or chance of nukyular attack) are over. And a quarantine / outbreak of flu will make the time people spent waiting for supplies after Katrina look like a coffee break.
Determine when to close schools and limit public gatherings such as movies or religious services.
You tell Spielberg that folks can’t go to see his latest “blockbuster” at your own peril. Next you’ll say that they won’t deliver my Amazon.com packages. Oh wait, that’s right, there’ll be a quarantine….
I live in a college town that, when staring down the barrel of Cat V Rita – it was projected to pass thirty miles west of us – decided to move UP their football game by two days. Not only did this make the existing evacuation traffic for Rita far worse, it shows that there is no way in HELL they would cancel football because a few people had the sniffles.
“Every community is different and requires a different approach,” Leavitt said.
You seen pictures of the Ninth Ward? Even today, months after Katrina? That could happen to you. Make sure you live near a prominant politician, that’s all I can advise. Us little people are expendable, if the shit hits the fan. We’ve seen it time and again.
Lawmakers said they agreed that drug manufacturers would need some protection from civil lawsuits, but Republicans and Democrats alike expressed concern that some of the legislation proposed so far gives consumers basically no recourse if harmed by a pandemic flu vaccine.
Let’s give the drug companies a free ride! Look ’em up on the Forbes list, they’re right behind the oil companies in profitability (and right behind them in line for government “help” to do things that they were, you know, incorporated to do in the first place)
But other lawmakers described the Bush plan as sound. Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, congratulated Leavitt for his “proven leadership” on the issue.
Notice the “R” in there. I’m sure he’ll pony up some of the $7 billion that won’t go anywhere in particular. Stand by for the inevitable report ten years from now about how half of the money can’t be accounted for. This isn’t leadership, it’s wishful thinking. Our state can’t afford schools or roads or to repair from a hurricane that barely touched us (much less prepare for another one), and we’re expected to spend millions if not billions buying unproven medications and beefing up military so we can quarantine citizens?
Can you tell I’m a bit bitchy today? Maybe it’s PMS 🙂