Cryptogon commentary:
What are the Secretaries of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and Education really saying here?
Our agencies are working with the Department of Agriculture to make sure children will have access to healthy meals if their schools close, and with Departments of Commerce and Labor to reach people at work.
This sounds like they’re really going to be whoopin’ it up this Fall. If it’s weasel worded pre-martial law mutterings now, what’s the Wurlitzer going to be spewing in a few months?
I would strongly suggest taking that Fall “sabbatical,” or arranging some kind of work-from-your-remote-cabin-in-the-woods plan, right now.
Via: Yahoo:
Every fall, we deal with new strains of seasonal flu. But this year, we’ll also confront a potentially serious flu virus that first appeared last spring. While scientists won’t know exactly how strong the 2009 H1N1 flu will be until the middle of the flu season, they’re warning it could cause more illness as our kids return to school.
We don’t need to wait to act. In the fight against flu, preparation is more than half the battle — and we need everyone to chip in.
We in the federal government have been aggressively responding to the new H1N1 since April. We’re building on what we learned from the early spring season and from health officials in the southern hemisphere where flu seasons are already underway.
read more @ cryptogon
State of MA takes extra steps to battle swine flu in the fall
Massachusetts health authorities took the unprecedented step yesterday of deputizing dentists, paramedics, and pharmacists to help administer vaccines against both the seasonal flu and the novel swine strain expected to make a return visit in the fall.
In another emergency measure, regulators directed hospitals and clinics to provide vaccine to all their workers and some volunteers, a move designed to keep the medical workforce robust and prevent doctors and nurses from making their patients sick.
The actions illustrated the intensifying sense of urgency as health authorities, hospital administrators, and clinic executives across the nation confront the prospect of providing hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine against not one but two deadly types of flu in the same season.
“It’s a huge burden of work; there’s no doubt about that,’’ said Dr. Jay Butler, director of the swine flu vaccine task force at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
hey, here's an idea, let's make it a game!...that's what the illuminati would do! it's fun for the whole family. - ed.
Like many other nations, the Netherlands is battling swine flu on many fronts.
At the forefront of the fight against the pandemic are the ranks of specialised doctors and millions of anti-viral tablets. But it also has one unusual weapon to call on - a videogame designed by experts at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam.
Dubbed "The Great Flu", the game is based on the threat that the emergence of a new flu virus and its rapid spread across the globe would pose to humanity.
"The game is based on the need to increase public awareness to the threat posed by a pandemic and the measures in place to contain it," said Albert Osterhaus, head of virology at the Erasmus Medical Centre and one of the experts involved in creating the game.
"In no way is it intended to be a substitute for any advice given by the medical authorities," he said. "Its purpose is simply to create another avenue of information."
The game is played online and gives players the unenviable task of containing, as much as they can, the spread of an unknown flu virus.
The more time passes, the more people become infected, more people die and more nations are hit.
read more @ bbc
National Guard drill at Maine high school to prepare for possible H1N1 riot
PARIS — Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School will be the site of a National Guard riot control drill Thursday morning to prepare in the event of a panic over distribution of serum to treat the swine flu.
The school on Route 26 at the Paris-Norway town line has been designated by state officials as a distribution site for the H1N1 flu vaccine. The drill is to prepare for a worst-case scenario should the serum have to be transported from Augusta and people rush to get it.
On Thursday morning, four or five National Guard Humvees will travel from Augusta to Paris with vials of fake serum. The National Guardsmen will take on the roles of panicked citizens and military police and practice what they would do, such as using tear gas, in the case of a riot.
"This is just a component of moving the stuff from point A to B," said Oxford County Emergency Management Agency Director Scott Parker. The plan will be put into place only if needed, he said.
Plans were developed in April to have vials of serum sent from the federal government to Augusta, Parker said. From Augusta, the supplies will be transported to designated distribution centers.
During the April conference, concerns were raised about a possible out-of-control rush on the serum, Parker said. Because of that concern, Gov. John Baldacci and Gen. John Libby, adjutant general of the Maine National Guard, agreed that a plan should be devised to quell such a disturbance.
Local police chiefs have also been involved in the planning, Parker said. In a real event, local police would be in charge of security once the serum arrives in Paris. "We own it. We're in charge of providing security," he said.
As of Aug. 5, the Maine Center for Disease Control said there had been 323 confirmed cases of H1N1 in Maine, of which 176 are Maine residents and the rest out-of-staters diagnosed in Maine. A total of 19 people required hospitalization. Sixty percent of the victims were under the age of 25.
On Tuesday, health authorities reported Maine's first death from the H1N1 virus. Dr. Dora Anne Mills, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control, said a York County man in his 50s was hospitalized for three weeks and died last week of underlying conditions complicated by H1N1.
The drill will take place behind the school and will not affect the day-to-day activities within the school. Access to the school building will be available through the main entrance, Parker said.
big big hopes for swine flu
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