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Obama declares swine flu a national emergency By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer Philip Elliott, Associated Press Writer 29 mins ago
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama declared the swine flu outbreak a national emergency, giving his health chief the power to let hospitals move emergency rooms offsite to speed treatment and protect noninfected patients.
The declaration, signed Friday night and announced Saturday, comes with the disease more prevalent than ever in the country and production delays undercutting the government's initial, optimistic estimates that as many as 120 million doses of the vaccine could be available by mid-October.
Health authorities say more than 1,000 people in the United States, including almost 100 children, have died from the flu, known as H1N1, and 46 states have widespread flu activity. So far only 11 million doses have gone out to health departments, doctor's offices and other providers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials.
Administration officials said the declaration was a pre-emptive move designed to make decisions easier when they need to be made. Officials said the move was not in response to any single development.
Health and Human Services chief Kathleen Sebelius now has authority to bypass federal rules when opening alternative care sites, such as offsite hospital centers at schools or community centers if hospitals seek permission.
Some hospitals have opened drive-thrus and drive-up tent clinics to screen and treat swine flu patients. The idea is to keep infectious people out of regular emergency rooms and away from other sick patients.
Hospitals could modify patient rules for example, requiring them to give less information during a hectic time to quicken access to treatment, with government approval, under the declaration.
It also addresses a financial question for hospitals reimbursement for treating people at sites not typically approved. For instance, federal rules do not allow hospitals to put up treatment tents more than 200 yard away from the doors; if the tents are 300 yards or more away, typically federal dollars won't go to pay for treatment.
Administration officials said those rules might not make sense while fighting the swine flu, especially if the best piece of pavement is in the middle of a parking lot and some medical centers already are putting in place parts of their emergency plans.
The national emergency declaration was the second of two steps needed to give Sebelius extraordinary powers during a crisis.
What crisis?
On April 26, the administration declared swine flu a public health emergency, allowing the shipment of roughly 12 million doses of (Mercury laden... lets not forget that... Mercury laden...) flu-fighting medications from a federal stockpile to states in case they eventually needed them. At the time, there were 20 confirmed cases in the U.S. of people recovering easily. There was no vaccine against swine flu, but the CDC had taken the initial step necessary for producing one.
"As a nation, we have prepared at all levels of government, and as individuals and communities, taking unprecedented steps to counter the emerging pandemic," Obama wrote in Saturday's declaration.
He said the pandemic keeps evolving, the rates of illness are rising rapidly in many areas and there's a potential "to overburden health care resources."
The government now hopes to have about 50 million doses of swine flu vaccine out by mid-November and 150 million in December. The flu virus has to be grown in chicken eggs, and the yield hasn't been as high as was initially hoped, officials have said.
"Many millions" of Americans have had swine flu so far, according to an estimate that CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden gave Friday. The government doesn't test everyone to confirm swine flu so it doesn't have an exact count. He also said there have been more than 20,000 hospitalizations.
Posts: 2965 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Who is going to say he's not doing enough? The media who is hyping this or the drug companies who want to sell a billion doses of their poison?
Posts: 2965 | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Relentless.: Who is going to say he's not doing enough? The media who is hyping this or the drug companies who want to sell a billion doses of their poison?
yeah, and parents of sick kids..
i agree it's being hyped to hell.
i don't want or need one... we already had it here.
the only time i got a flu shot in 95(?) and that's also the only time i've ever gotten sick enough to stay in bed all day... go figure...
i did a lot of research on SARS and the vaccines for SVA...
was SARS a hype job? nope.
do you know how easily a flu can mutate? would the vaccine be any good if it does? who friggin knows... they're covering their azzes.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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My wife and I were arguing about this very thing last night except Obama's name wasn't brought up.
I said the whole thing was overblown, that while the symptoms may be worse it wasn't any more fatal than a regular strain of flu, and that the reason everybody was getting so worked up is becuase it came out of Mexico instead of Asia like normal.
She said it wasn't overblown-that peeps should take it more seriously, that this flu is targeting the young fatally in higher than normal numbers which is why adults should be concerned about being carriers, and that it only takes one weird mutation for a flu to go from mildly virulent to overtly virulent, that this flu already has a couple weird things about it that heightens concerns about mutation, and that the world is over due for a 'super-bug' in the form of a flu.
We disagree on this one. Needless to say she never misses a flu shot and I never miss not having one.
-------------------- No longer eligible for government service due to lack of tax issues. Posts: 5178 | From: Up North | Registered: Dec 2005
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I would say if the death rate was higher it would be worth worrying about... If the vaccine was less lethal than the virus then.. it would be worth while. The people I've heard of who have had it said it really wasn't any worse than the regular flu. I can't imagine that there is a genuine reason for declaring a state of emergency over this. I do not want a government that takes action to avoid headlines.. I want one that takes action when needed. A state of emergency should be reserved for incoming asteroids... Ruskie nukes... Alien invasions... Something big.
Posts: 2965 | Registered: Aug 2005
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have you ever read the side effects of Tamiflu?
Severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; itching; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue); abnormal behavior; confusion; hallucinations; mood or mental changes; reddened, blistered, peeling, or swollen skin; seizures; severe or persistent nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea; symptoms of infection (eg, fever, chills, persistent sore throat).
Tamiflu has a very high rate of side effects too...
my perspective on the whole flu thing is that some year we'll need a good vaccine, if htye don't hype it every year and sell enough vaccines to keep the makers in biz? they won't be around the year we really need it....
this year isn't the one tho...
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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You must be kidding? We need to cry wolf each and every day so that one day when a wolf appears we'll be ready? hmmm.. I have a better idea.. How's about we leave people the **** alone? Sounds like a winner to me.
Posts: 2965 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Oh and I'm not sure if you've looked but the drug makers.. they're ok.. we don't need to hype every sniffle so they can afford to continue allowing us to live.
Posts: 2965 | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Relentless.: You must be kidding? We need to cry wolf each and every day so that one day when a wolf appears we'll be ready? hmmm.. I have a better idea.. How's about we leave people the **** alone? Sounds like a winner to me.
not kidding at all... it's what's going on...
i don't buy the darn things, but if people want to? they can...
i would prolly buy one if we were looking at a strain like the last real pandemic tho...
if we had that this year? we'd be SOL....
the flu vaccines are made in totally unique way...
you have to inoculate thousands of eggs to grow the virus and they all have to be kept germ free, that is really difficult and expensive...
i'm not saying it's a great program, i'm just saying that one day we will get hit hard... it's only a matter of time... facts of biology and all that...
and we wouldn't be ready even today if this was "the one"
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
The potential payoff is not worth the cost we are paying now. Current standards of living would make a flu epidemic like we saw last century next to impossible. What we are seeing now is nothing more than a pump and dump scam as is always the case when government is involved. No one gives a crap about the next pandemic except for the hopelessly delusional and blinded. There is no excuse for smothering the population with fear in the hopes of making money. None at all.
Posts: 2965 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Last year i had a real bad case of the flu.
It was assumed that i had the swine flu, but i never took the test to confirm it.
You don't want it, if it hits you, like it hit me.
I have not had a case of the flu like that before.
I was put on the Tamiflu the second day i was sick.
The next day i started having a horrible headache and if i layed down it got worse if that was even possible.
For the next few days i kept taking the Tamiflu and i could not sleep because of the headache.
I stopped the Tamiflu for one day and the headache started to get better, but my flu and fever were getting better also.
So i thought maybe i should start taking it again, since it might be shorting the duration of the flu and maybe that was why my headache was going away.
Big mistake, my headache came back, so at that point i stopped the Tamiflu altogether and the headache disappeared completely the next night.
No way i would ever take Tamiflu again, and i was only taking a half dose.
Last week my daughter took my granddaughter to get the vacine for the swine flu.
The doctor had indicated that he had already three confirmed cases at one school in the district.
The doctors have been alerted to contact the district or school if they have confirmed cases.
They are suppose to shut down the school if they have three cases of swine flu and his office alone had three cases.
So he contacted either the school or district to let them know about his confirmed cases and everyone he talked to just said someone else was handling this and had no luck.
It sounds like he just finally gave up trying to find the right person, if there is one.
To help prevent the swine flu, they say to wash hands a lot, gargle with listerine and use a sinus rinse on a regular basis.
The listerine could be replaced with straight alcohol-whiskey etc.
Posts: 3875 | From: ca. | Registered: Jul 2005
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That sounds terrible Iwish, my experience with the flu was bad but not anywhere like yours I am following all the rules I sure want to sit this one out
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise. Posts: 3827 | From: beautiful California | Registered: Sep 2008
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"That sounds terrible Iwish, my experience with the flu was bad but not anywhere like yours I am following all the rules I sure want to sit this one out"
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Something to stay away from if possible, better to use all the easy precautions to cut the risk down, but not worth going into issolation to avoid.
Interesting that people under fifty can take the nasal type, yet people over fifty need the shot, which is impossibe to find at this point.
Maybe they give us less of a dose over fifty because we use the senior discount and medicare doesn't have any money left to pay.
One of the major problems about these flu's is they seem to compound any other medical problems people have.
Plus, from what i am hearing, it very easy for the swine flu to slip into pneumonia quickly.
I have heard a few parents talking about their young kids getting pneumonia and several others that have also had pneumonia after first being diagnosed with the swine flu.
They say they were lucky they caught their kids pneumonia early by getting them to the doctor's office.
Posts: 3875 | From: ca. | Registered: Jul 2005
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I came down with the Flu, a week ago last Friday. When I checked the symptoms against the Swine Flu, well it was dead on. It started with a cough Friday and by night fall it hit full force. I was literally in bed until Monday. Coughing, Fever, Body felt like I had been worked over by a pro. Monday morning I tried to eat and could only eat a half a slice of toast. I just took some theraflu and drank plenty of liquids. The fever would come and go. A couple of times I thought I was getting better only for the fever to return. Little by little I was able to eat some soup but it was about a bowl a day. Today is the first day that I actually feel better and my appetite has returned. I lost 12 lbs.
Since it wasn't neccessary for me to leave the house, I stayed in, not wanting to spread the infection. As for the vaccine, I never had the opportunity to choose if I wanted it or not since it wasn't available until after I was already sick. I probably wouldn't have taken it since I never had a flu shot. The Flu is very strong, I'm over 50 but can see the potential danger for children and others at risk.
IMO, it does have the potential to become a national emergency. The irony is that if Obama and the authorities do their job, people will say he cried wolf. Yet, how does anyone know for sure how bad things would/could have been if no action was taken.
Posts: 3255 | From: Los Angeles California | Registered: Jan 2006
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I'll tell you what is more important to stop, mad cow disease...have they forgotten about me or what?
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so. Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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