Bird flu

[Kat Kanning]

Bush is just dying to lock us up and use the military on us!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051004/ap_on_he_me/bush_avian_flu
Bush Considers Military Role in Flu Fight

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer 34 minutes ago

WASHINGTON -
President Bush, increasingly concerned about a possible avian flu pandemic, revealed Tuesday that any part of the country where the virus breaks out could likely be quarantined and that he is considering using the military to enforce it.

"The best way to deal with a pandemic is to isolate it and keep it isolated in the region in which it begins," he said during a wide-ranging Rose Garden news conference.

The president was asked if his recent talk of giving the military the lead in responding to large natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and other catastrophes was in part the result of his concerns that state and local personnel aren't up to the task of a flu outbreak.

"Yes," he replied.

After the bungled initial federal response to Katrina, Bush suggested putting the
Pentagon in charge of search-and-rescue efforts in times of a major terrorist attack or similarly catastrophic natural disaster. He has argued that the armed forces have the ability to quickly mobilize the equipment, manpower and communications capabilities needed in times of crisis.

But such a shift could require a change in law, and some in Congress and the states worry it would increase the power of the federal government at the expense of local control.

Bush made clear that the potential for an outbreak of avian flu is much on his mind, and has had him talking with "as many (world) leaders as I could find," consulting a book he read over the summer on the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic that killed 40 million and meeting with staff and experts.

"I have thought through the scenarios of what an avian flu outbreak could mean," he said.

He acknowledged that a quarantine ? an idea sure to alarm many in the public ? is no small thing for the government to undertake and that enforcing it would be tricky.

"It's one thing to shut down airplanes," Bush said. "It's another thing to prevent people from coming in to get exposed to the avian flu."

He urged Congress to give him the ability to use the military, if needed.

"I think the president ought to have all ... assets on the table to be able to deal with something this significant," he said.

As a standby precaution, Bush in April signed an executive order that added pandemic influenza to the government's list of communicable diseases for which a quarantine is authorized. It gives the government legal authority to detain or isolate a passenger arriving in the United States to prevent an infection from spreading.

At the time the order was signed, a spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the Public Health Service would probably recommend home quarantines when possible, but said they would be voluntary. It's unclear whether the federal takeover of state and local quarantine powers that Bush discussed Tuesday would be limited just to travel or involve broader home quarantines as well.

Bush also said he has been urging world leaders to improve reporting on outbreaks of the virus, and exploring how to speed the production of a spray, now in limited supply, that "can maybe help arrest the spread of the disease."

"One of the issues is how do we encourage the manufacturing capacity of the country, and maybe the world, to be prepared to deal with the outbreak of a pandemic?" he said.

Yet it is the pill Tamiflu, which makes symptoms less severe and shortens the duration of the illness, that is in short supply ? not its harder-to-use inhaled competitor Relenza.

Experts agree there will certainly be another flu pandemic ? a new human flu strain that goes global. However, it is unknown when or how bad that global epidemic will be ? or whether the H5N1 bird flu strain now circulating in Asian poultry will be its origin.

Just in case, experts are tracking the avian flu, which has swept through poultry populations in large swaths of Asia since 2003, jumped to humans and killed at least 65 people.

Most human cases have been linked to a contact with sick birds, but the
World Health Organization has warned the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans ? changing it from a bird virus to a human pandemic flu strain.

[Kat Kanning]

A nation of sheeple
Posted: October 19, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

? 2005 Creators Syndicate Inc.

President Bush informed the nation, during a press conference, that he might seek to use the U.S. military to quarantine parts of the nation should there be a serious outbreak of the deadly avian flu that has killed millions of chickens and 60-some people in Southeast Asia. That's the second time Bush has expressed a desire to use the military for local policing. The first was in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C. 1385) generally prohibits federal military personnel and units of the U.S. National Guard under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the U.S. Constitution or Congress.

Enacted during Reconstruction, the purpose of the Posse Comitatus Act was to severely limit the powers of the federal government to use the military for local law enforcement. Would Americans tolerate such a gigantic leap in the federalization of law enforcement? I'm guessing the answer is yes. In the name of safety, we've undergone decades of softening up to accept just about any government edict that our predecessors would have found offensive. Let's look at some of it.

The anti-smoking movement might be the beginning of the softening up process. They started out calling for reasonable actions like no-smoking sections on airplanes. Then it progressed to no smoking on airplanes altogether, then private establishments such as restaurants and businesses. Emboldened by the timidity of smokers, in some jurisdictions there are ordinances banning smoking in outdoor places such as beaches and parks.

Then there are seatbelt and helmet laws that have sometimes been zealously enforced through the use of night vision goggles. On top of this, Americans accept government edicts on where your child may ride in your car. Americans sheepishly accepted all sorts of Transportation Security Administration nonsense. In the name of security, we've allowed fingernail clippers, eyeglass screwdrivers and toy soldiers to be taken from us prior to boarding a plane.

We've accepted federal intrusion in our financial privacy through the Bank Secrecy Act. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, says, "More than 99.999 percent of those [who] had their privacy invaded were law-abiding citizens going about their own personal financial business." Most recently, there's the U.S. Supreme Court Kelo decision, where the court held that local governments can take a private person's house and turn it over to another private person. Politicians have learned and become comfortable with the fact that today's Americans will docilely accept just about any legalized restraint on their behavior.

You say, "Hey, Williams, but it's the law!" In the late-1700s, the British Parliament enacted the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts, and imposed other grievances that are enumerated in our Declaration of Independence. I'm happy that we didn't have today's Americans around at the time to bow before King George III and say, "It's the law." Respectful of the Posse Comitatus Act, President Bush has suggested that he'll ask Congress to amend the law to allow for the use of the U.S. military to enforce regional quarantines. Whether Congress amends the law or not, Bush has no constitutional authority to deploy military troops across the land. Why?

The U.S. Constitution's Article IV, Section 4 reads, "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic Violence." Coupled with the Tenth Amendment, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people," this means short of an insurrection, the U.S. military must be invited by a state legislature or executive. Any federal law that violates these constitutional provisions is null and void and can only be enforced through fear, intimidation and brute military force.


Dr. Walter E. Williams is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

[polyanarch]

What is the common concensus on what to do if bird flu hits the US and is air-vectored?

I sure as hell am going to drop out of society and hole up someplace.  You won't find me at work or anywhere near a hospital.

1 in 5 dead is the number they are throwing around.  Look back at the influenza epidemics of the early 20th century and it is very scarry.  People live in bigger cities and closer together today. 

Just in time delivery of foodstuffs and other vital materials will just about rip apart the fabric of society.  Back then localities were more self-suffecient.

This scares me  just a little bit here folks.

Is this the real Y2K?

[AlanM]

What is the common concensus on what to do if bird flu hits the US and is air-vectored?

I sure as hell am going to drop out of society and hole up someplace.? You won't find me at work or anywhere near a hospital.

1 in 5 dead is the number they are throwing around.? Look back at the influenza epidemics of the early 20th century and it is very scarry.? People live in bigger cities and closer together today.?

Just in time delivery of foodstuffs and other vital materials will just about rip apart the fabric of society.? Back then localities were more self-suffecient.

This scares me? just a little bit here folks.

Is this the real Y2K?

I share your concerns, poly. This could cause the collapse of society as we know it, assuming it actually mutates.

[polyanarch]

It doesn't even HAVE to mutate. 

If it never does it can still be a Reichstag fire for the NeoCons.

[AlanM]

It doesn't even HAVE to mutate.?

If it never does it can still be a Reichstag fire for the NeoCons.

ANOTHER ONE? How many do they need, for Christ's sake? They already had 9-11.

[Eli]

Look for the Re: Bird Flu thread. ?I posted some preparedness links. ?There's a Flu Wiki out there as well with a lot of links. ?Having a place to hole up is a pretty good idea though.

[polyanarch]

I can't seem to find it.  What area is it in?

[Kat Kanning]

What worries me is them recreating the 1918 flu virus 

[AlanM]

What worries me is them recreating the 1918 flu virus?

That is a back-up, in case the bird flu fails to mutate. 

[toowm]

It has an extra "e".

http://www.fluwikie.com

The oddest thing I heard is that these pandemics, that occur every 100 years or so, take out the healthy in society. Most epidemics hit the young, old, and infirm, but these make healthy people's good immune systems work against themselves. Creepy

[Kat Kanning]

    AVIAN FLU HYSTERIA REACHES NEW PEAK

Jon Rappoport | October 10 2005

The Bush administration is climbing on the bird-flu bandwagon with all hands and feet, suggesting a larger role for the military in the "inevitable" global pandemic that will lay the US low.

Quarantines are high on the list of strategies.

If you read The NY Times article below, you'll notice several things.

The GLOBAL toll for human bird flu now stands at about 100 cases, with 60 deaths. In other words, more people have died from being hit by phone books dropping out of 10th-story windows. To infer a global pandemic from these stats should earn any scientist a quick trip to a job washing dishes at Burger King.

The US Secretary of Health and Human Services states (far down in the Times piece) that the current avian flu strain is not likely to be the bug that does the job.

Massive production of vaccines is urged---despite the fact that such vaccine would not be able to target the eventual killer strain of the flu virus. (And of course, such vaccines aren't effective and safe anyway.)

The "debate" about who gets the vaccine first, the debate about which government agencies should lead the response to a pandemic that will kill millions, the debate about how extensive the quarantines should be---all of these sober deliberations put the PR cherry on the cake: "Well, if they're arguing about those factors, the pandemic itself is certainly a done deal, it's going to happen."

Yeah. That's the whole point of PR. Sell the core fantasy behind a welter of weighty and official statements.

The Times article doesn't mention that even these 100 cases of human bird flu and the 60 deaths have never been accorded the public scrutiny they deserve. What tests were run to find the virus in the patients? How accurate were the tests? Did they locate antibodies or the actual virus? If the actual virus, in what quantities did the virus reside in the bodies of the human beings?

These are all absolutely key questions, and they have not been answered.

It's quite possible that there are NO cases of human bird flu.

Further, what was the PRIOR condition of the patients before the supposed flu virus attacked? Were these people already suffering from weak immune systems? In that case, any old germ can sweep through and cause severe or lethal infections.

Beyond even these considerations, there is the background premise that animal germs can and do mutate to allow them to infect and kill humans. This is a shaky piece of science, and it can only be confirmed or denied by actually investigating every single presumptive human case in great depth. We have no evidence that this has been done. Then, on top of that, proof would have to be offered that the germ in question really did mutate from animal hosts.

Some time ago, I published official figures from both the CDC and the American Lung Association, which showed that the canned figure of 36,000 annual flu deaths in the US is a lie. The figure is more like 800-1000. And then, we would need that same in-depth study of the patients to confirm even such low numbers.

If evidence is any indicator, as opposed to PR and scare tactics, there is no reason to suspect that avian flu is going to cause human problems.

As for all the animals that have been killed worldwide, most of them of course have been slaughtered to PREVENT the spread the avian flu. They haven't died FROM the flu germ. And the real reason for epidemics among farm animals (there are ALWAYS such epidemics on the march) is: these animals are raised in the most desolate and repellent conditions imaginable: overcrowded pens; feces everywhere; huge dusting with toxic antibiotics...

In such conditions, any old germ can spread and finish off large numbers of animals.

Huge presence of the military; widespread quarantines; government commands to citizens; compulsory vaccines; all based on no facts. What does this sound like to you?

[Eli]

What worries me is them recreating the 1918 flu virus?

Luddite ;-)

[polyanarch]

Luddite ;-)

That's what my friends call me when I tell them I don't have a TV set.

[Kat Kanning]

I don't have TV either.