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Biotech / Medical : SARS and Avian Flu -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: maceng2 who wrote (2591)	10/11/2005 7:13:04 PM
From: regli	Respond to of 4232

Excellent post, Pearly. The most important thing I have learnt in the last few years is to practise scepticism about any statement that a person of authority tries to deciminate. We have arrived at the point where it appears virtuous to not tell the truth. Of course always under the guise of keeping the best interests of the concerned at heart.

To: maceng2 who wrote (2591)	10/11/2005 7:36:36 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 4232

Good commentary PB. That's my experience too. Governments like to play down certain dangers because they think it's up to them to avoid "panic" in the public. "Panic" is not good for governments because their primary business is control of people and "panicking" or stroppy people are notoriously hard to control Governments, police and security people are loving terrorism. It gives them cart blanche to go nuts with authoritarianism. The terrified public are compliant and most want the government to "save them". The public tolerates huge queues and hassles with anything involving "security". Governments enforce that by viciously crunching anyone who so much as makes a joke. See the compliant, silent, lines of people, herding like sheep into the government queues. That's how Adolf and co got so many people into gas chambers. Avoid panic. Lie and do anything to keep them calm until they are caught in the trap. The same principles apply now. I find I get much better answers by thinking and acting for myself. Early and vigorous panic is a good response to any government soothing comments. <Very prominent during the UK's "bad period" BSE crisis, the mid 1990's, was the relentless official government press saying there was no problem. Playing down the risks all the time without a thought. There was real definite risk. People started to die and the deaths could have gone off the chart unless something was done. Governments and officials do the daftest things (usually) in times of real crisis, you have to be prepared (as best you can), against that for a start. > We lived in London from 1986 to 1987 and New Zealand blood transfusion services will still not accept our blood as it might have prions in it. The government issued soothing words about Chernobyl's fallout too. I ignored them and bought up milk powder quickly for our children and avoided anything that could have had rainfall on it such as spinach etc. That was a wise action as it turned out. I recall walking home and it was raining a bit and I thought that the drops would have nucleated around radioactive dust. I wasn't drinking it, and wasn't too worried about it as I would have a shower soon enough. Turned out it probably was. Doctors suffer the same syndrome. They consider "reassuring the patient" to be treatment. I've experienced that a few times. Oddly, it didn't cure non-Hodgkins lymphoma, or a cervical ganglion neurofibroma, or turn a melanoma into a freckle, or stop a vicious diarrhoea in our infant, or stop a bacteria from dissolving my eyelid, or turn a squamous cell carcinoma into an actinic keratosis, or turn pneumonia into a cold, etc [that's all, and more, just for me, wife and children, no third parties or hearsay], which were all treated with "reassurance" until I insisted on something a bit more sensible. Doctors are not the only sufferers of the "benign diagnosis" psychosis. It's common in most people, but often fatal for doctors' patients. The illness stems from their desire for an easy life, profits, and because they assume anything is the most benign and common problem which matches the symptoms, rather than the most dangerous problem which could match the symptoms. They don't correctly value the consequences of them being wrong. Fortunately for them, they costs of their mistakes are borne almost entirely by the patient, who in NZ can't sue a doctor. In the USA, the costs of litigation are kicked upstairs to the insurers. So, not only does one get the medical problem one gets the frustration of a psycho doctor reassuring you that you shouldn't worry. They and governments have real power to stop you saving yourself. So they are very scary! Mqurice

To: maceng2 who wrote (2591)	10/12/2005 6:45:28 PM
From: maceng2	Respond to of 4232

To Simonson's credit, the Boston Herald quoted Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, as saying he is "one of the most competent, capable people to work with." So is Bush's guy, Stewart Simonson, any good or what? cnsnews.com a link to MoveOn.org site.. political.moveon.org MoveOn.Org Warns HHS Official Unqualified to Deal with Flu Pandemic By Melanie Hunter CNSNews.com Senior Editor October 12, 2005 (CNSNews.com) - In an email titled "Flu Pandemic: Our lives are in this man's hands," the MoveOn.org Political Action Team issued a warning Wednesday predicting that the Bush administration would be ill-prepared to deal with an outbreak of the avian flu virus in the United States, because the point man responsible for dealing with a flu pandemic is not qualified. The liberal advocacy group accused Stewart Simonson, assistant secretary for Public Health Emergency Preparedness for the Health and Human Services Department, of having "no experience related to his job - he's a political appointee." "And a botched response could affect millions of Americans," the group wrote, urging the public to sign a petition to replace Simonson. "Stewart Simonson is the Bush administration's point man for a flu pandemic but he has no public health management experience. He got his job because he is a close associate of former Health & Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson," wrote MoveOn.org. The group said prior to working in the Health and Human Services Department, Simonson worked as corporate secretary and counsel for Amtrak when Thompson was chief of the rail service. Prior to that, Simonson was staff lawyer for Thompson when Thompson served as governor of Wisconsin, the group added. "In short, he is not qualified for a public health job that hundreds of millions of people are counting on," said MoveOn.org. "This isn't just a case of resume inflation. Simonson doesn't seem to have a grasp on the very important work he is supposed to be doing right now." The group pointed to a House hearing in July where Simonson said he had all the money necessary to buy influenza vaccine and antiviral medication. "The very next day, his office submitted a funding request to Congress seeking an additional $150 million for flu vaccine and antiviral medication," MoveOn.org said. "Last month the Congress gave another $4 billion for the effort." The group's plan is to pressure HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt to force Simonson's ouster. "The Department of Health and Human Services is about to announce a new influenza plan. They need a highly qualified and respected professional at the helm when implementation of the plan begins. That is why it is urgent that Leavitt replace Simonson immediately," wrote MoveOn.org. The group said they plan to target Simonson through Leavitt because Leavitt "will be more responsive than President Bush or even Congress," because "he wants a scandal-free campaign to prepare for a flu pandemic." The 'next Michael Brown' Simonson's "lack of experience," according to MoveOn.org, "couldn't come at a more challenging time." The group noted the New York Times reported recently that the U.S. is "gravely unprepared for a flu pandemic" after the paper viewed a draft of the department's influenza plan. "We have only 2 percent of the courses of antiviral treatments we'll need. The plan predicts a worst-case scenario in which nearly 2 million Americans would die and 8.5 million would be hospitalized. Costs would exceed $450 billion. Finally, the report says we need to expand vaccine manufacturing capacity by more than ten fold," MoveOn.org wrote. The group compared Simonson to former FEMA director Michael Brown who resigned following the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe, during which the agency was widely criticized for not responding quickly enough to the disaster. "Many people are calling Simonson the 'next Michael Brown' in reference to the lack of experience of the former FEMA director who botched the federal response to Hurricane Katrina," MoveOn.org wrote. Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) "released a fact sheet about cronyism in the Bush administration that blew the whistle on Simonson." The liberal advocacy group warned of the seriousness of a flu pandemic. "The 1918 flu pandemic is estimated to have killed 50 million people-the largest numbers dying in just weeks. In the 1950s and 1960s smaller flu pandemics in the United States killed tens of thousands," the group wrote. "Our government needs a serious response to this serious threat." To Simonson's credit, the Boston Herald quoted Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, as saying he is "one of the most competent, capable people to work with."