A1A South

From CNN:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The U.S. military wants to establish regional teams of military personnel to assist civilian authorities in the event of a significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, according to Defense Department officials.

The proposal is awaiting final approval from Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The officials would not be identified because the proposal from U.S. Northern Command’s Gen. Victor Renuart has not been approved by the secretary.

The plan calls for military task forces to work in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. There is no final decision on how the military effort would be manned, but one source said it would likely include personnel from all branches of the military.

As a former military member, I know that the military compulsively plans constantly to protect against threats to the country. That is what they do because they know they can be called up at any time for anything so they damn well better be prepared, because deploying thousands of people for any reason requires a plan of action.

As a person who lives in a hurricane-prone area, I am constantly amazed by the number of people who have no plan whatsoever. A storm starts brewing in the Atlantic or Caribbean or Gulf, and there are people that start putting up hurricane shutters, checking their food supplies, and stocking up. A lot of people do *nothing*.

The tropical storm turns into a hurricane, and a watch is issued. More people start to prepare. Tourists are evacuated. Nursing homes and disabled people in the areas that may be affected are moved to shelters. People in low-lying/storm surge prone areas are urged to evacuate. Many do. A lot don’t.

When the hurricane warning is issued, supplies are mostly stripped from area stores. Service stations are empty. Indeed, most places are already closed. Highways are clogged. There are a lot of panicked people that didn’t prepare earlier looking for supplies that aren’t there. Some people go surfing in the awesome waves.

If the hurricane hits, the non-prepared people call the emergency responders requesting assistance but none can be provided until after the storm is over. Some have to leave their houses because they are breaking apart due to wind or tidal surge. Some of those people make it to another shelter. Some of them don’t, and their bodies are found when the waters recede if they don’t drift out to sea or are buried beneath silt and debris.

We’re in the flu watch category right now. It could be that when school starts, nobody becomes ill because the students were all exposed last school year, at summer camps, or at day care, and all the preparation will be for nothing. Then the unprepared can point and laugh at the people that prepared for the worst just in case as complete idiots.

The CDC and WHO have warned us several times that the fall wave of the flu could be massive. Nobody knows yet. The flu has been simmering away in the US during the non-flu season, quietly killing people who now have access to the best health care available.

If the flu roars back in the fall, people may not have access to the best health care available because the medical people may be sick, the hospitals in hard-hit areas may be overwhelmed, there may not be enough ventilators to accommodate all those who are gravely ill, and the flu may mutate to become resistant to antiviral medications. The only way to slow the rate of infection will be through the use of quarantines.

Y’all might want to make sure you have extra jars of peanut butter and jelly just in case. I checked my pantry. I’ve got 12 lbs. of peanut butter but only 3 lbs. of SwampMan’s favorite jelly. I need to go shopping.

With 75 lbs. of flour in the freezer and 2 lbs. of yeast in the pantry, I don’t think I’ll need to worry about having enough bread (grin) unless I become sick, but I had the swine flu shot back in ’76 as did @ 40 million others. Those of us that survived the shot may still have some immunity. I hope.

STUART, Fla. — A jury has found in favor of a South Florida hospital that quietly chartered a plane and sent a seriously brain injured illegal immigrant back to Guatemala over the objections of his family and legal guardian.

Health care and immigration experts across the country have closely watched the court case decided Monday in the sleep beach town of Stuart. They say it underscores the dilemma facing hospitals with patients who require long-term care, are unable to pay and don’t qualify for federal or state aid because of their immigration status.

The lawsuit sought nearly $1 million to cover the estimated lifetime costs of the man’s care in Guatemala, as well as damages.

If Guatemalan hospitals and/or government steps forward to pay lifetime costs of injured illegal Americans, then I can see where the family might have a reasonable expectation of having their family member cared for.

If we’re going to cut back on health costs, the no brainer solution would be to quit providing medical services for free to illegal aliens.

From CNN:

At last count, the CDC said there are 43,771 H1N1 reported cases in the U.S., along with 302 deaths that have been linked to the illness.

In a normal flu season, about 36,000 Americans die from influenza and related complications.*

Models predict the 2009 H1N1 flu will peak in October, with many cases being diagnosed in September, according to Dr. Robert Belshe, director of Saint Louis University’s Center for Vaccine Development.

“We’ll be in the midst of it before we know it,” Belshe said.

Swine flu could sicken one in five people this fall, and Belshe said he worries that the number of serious health complications and deaths as a result of the H1N1 virus could soar.

“It’s looking more and more like we’re going to have a big flu outbreak this fall as soon as the kids get back to school,” Belshe told CNN Radio.

“Influenza is unpredictable, but I believe this pandemic will hit pre-teens, teens and their parents hard, and as many as 60 million Americans could be sick with the flu. It’s critical that we find a way to protect people from this disease.**”

Sooooo, the latest SWAG at this time is that we’re going to get whopped hard by the flu before a vaccine is available. That is probably correct as we’ve been seeing the death rate from the flu double in Florida in the past few weeks.

Considering that there isn’t a vaccine available at this time and that the only response available for public health officials to try to cut the infection rate in the event of a big outbreak would be quarantine, I think it might be a good idea to have food storage adequate for the family for several weeks, particularly since the infectious waves seem to be for @ 12-week intervals. We received a letter from the State of Florida that recommended a 90-day food supply in the event of a pandemic a couple of years ago.

Oral rehydration solutions can be made at home or purchased; my thought on this is that since the flu strikes quickly, it would be best to have some on hand for immediate use just in case adult(s) in the household responsible for caring for others is/are the one(s) stricken.

I’m going shopping next week. I suppose there is a possibility that this could burn itself out and not return in the fall, in which case the worst that will happen is that I’ll have lots of soup, beef stew, and Gatorade in the pantry.

*In a normal flu season, the CDC doesn’t count flu deaths. The only deaths counted have been pediatric deaths, and only for a few years. The 36,000 is just a guess and, considering the low actual pediatric death rates, probably wildly inaccurate.

**If that many people develop the flu, the hospitals/medical personnel would be overwhelmed. Slowing the spread through quarantine until a vaccine is developed would probably be done.