Bird Flu Pandemic
– President Bush will soon approve an Emergency Response Plan
April 17th,
2006
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Birds |
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The infected H5N1
birds are anticipated to arrive in the United States in the next couple
of months. The US government is putting together a plan of action in
the event that the deadly H5N1 virus becomes transmitted from human to
human causing a pandemic and potentially killing millions of Americans.
The response plan
has not yet been approved by President Bush who was presented the
documents in a briefing on March 17th. It is expected that President
Bush will have an approval within a week. At this time there are over
300 tasks that are assigned to federal agencies if the pandemic occurs.
According to a report on WCCO some of the listed major tasks have been
revealed to the news agencies.
If the pandemic
arrived, people would be encouraged to stay at home and work at home.
Children would not go to school. Large gatherings would be cancelled.
Since people would
be working at home using the internet, there would be a good chance the
internet would bog down. The plan includes provisions to boost the
internet to help keep people productive even when working at home.
There is a
possible plan for having a drive-thru clinic to assess potential bird
flu infected people. This would give a fast method to diagnose
potential cases. The Department of Veterans Affairs has already
implanted a drive-thru Flu shot with success in the last year.
Currency could be
printed in a foreign country if the US Treasury Department is unable to
operate.
Government
officials recommend that not only government employees, but also private
business plan for a reduced work force of around 40 percent reduction
during the time of the pandemic.
One of the
concerns if that when the vaccination is available there is still debate
who should be first in line of receiving the shot. Some officials want
the medical, and government workers to be first in line, while others
want the infected people’s family to get treatment first. There are
also plans to summon retired federal employees back to work during the
pandemic.
According to the
Washington Post, the government anticipates that the pandemic could last
for an 18 month time period. They estimate as many as 90 million people
would become infected and possibly kill around 1.9 million Americans.
These are preliminary plans and government officials continue to revise
the plan.
Nicole Wilson
Best Syndication
Books on Bird Flu Pandemic at Amazon
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