The federal government isn't prepared for a potential outbreak of swine flu this fall

[mirkwood]

July 30, 2009
By Carrie Wells
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON ? The federal government isn't prepared for a potential outbreak of swine flu this fall, a Government Accountability Office report released to Congress concluded Wednesday.

Furthermore, said the GAO, Congress' nonpartisan investigative arm, federal agencies haven't addressed nearly half of the 24 recommendations it made last month.

http://standeyo.com/NEWS/09_Health/09_Health_pics/090731.Meissner.jpgPhoto: Cody Meissner, left, and Lance Chilton look on during a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization at the Centers for Disease Control and prevention Wednesday, July 29, 2009, in Atlanta. The advisory panel is meeting to take up the question of who should be first to get swine flu shots when there aren't enough for everyone. At the top of the list are health care workers, who would be crucial to society during a bad pandemic. (AP)

William Coor, the deputy secretary of Health and Human Services, disputed the findings.

"Given the speed at which the virus has spread we felt our work and coordination has been outstanding," he said. However, Jane Holl Lute, the deputy secretary of Homeland Security, acknowledged that, "We still have work to do."

The GAO agreed, saying that if a severe outbreak struck:


<LI type=disc>Federal, state and local governments would have trouble coordinating with one another.


The number of beds and medical supplies would be insufficient, and plans to protect federal workers aren't adequate.

Health officials worldwide acknowledge that the virus has reached pandemic proportions and could strike more severely in the fall. In the U.S., more than 43,000 people have contracted the virus, and so far, 302 have died.

Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., called the report "startling" after it was presented to the House Homeland Security Committee Wednesday.

The committee voted unanimously to urge the federal departments to respond to the GAO's recommendations within three months.

"Based on our survey, progress seems to be limited," said Bernice Steinhardt, the GAO's director of strategic issues. The rosy outlook of the agencies could be because they still haven't tested what they'd do in a severe outbreak, she added.

http://standeyo.com/NEWS/09_Health/09_Health_pics/090731.man.jpgPhoto: A manwearing a protective mask as a precaution against swine flu waits to be attended at a hospital in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Wednesday, July 29, 2009. Argentina has the world's second-highest swine flu death toll after the U.S. , but the virus is apparently still killing fewer people here than normal seasonal flu, good news for experts in the Northern Hemisphere who are watching closely to see how it evolves in the southern winter. (AP)

Lute listed the steps that her agency has taken to prepare, including reaching out to Native American tribal governments and drafting a response plan.

Deputy Health and Human Services Secretary William Coor also defended his department's actions.
Coor added that HHS and the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the next few weeks will give directions to state and local governments on how to deal with a big outbreak.

Swine flu, or H1N1, emerged in April in the U.S., and by June, the World Health Organization said it had grown to pandemic proportions. The WHO said it's killed at least 816 people worldwide. The Southern Hemisphere is now in its regular flu season, and swine flu there has been particularly deadly.

Coor said a vaccine won't be ready for several more months, after trials are finished. He also said that federal and state governments have stockpiled 75 million to 100 million antiviral treatments, a number he called "sufficient."

http://standeyo.com/NEWS/09_Health/09_Health_pics/090731.nurse.jpgPhoto: A nurse wears a face masks as protection against the swine flu virus, as she attends to Fabian Guevara at a public hospital in Santiago, Wednesday, July 29, 2009. The World Health Organization has said that the swine flu virus has spread to almost every country in the world since it was discovered at the end of March. (AP)

National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley told the committee the federal government communicated poorly with federal workers earlier this year.

For example, federal employees were forbidden from wearing face masks to avoid getting the virus unless they were within six feet of a person who seemed likely to have swine flu.

The committee's chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., wasn't happy with the report.

"Given this country's recent experience with disasters, it is hard to believe that there are those who underestimate the importance of plans and drills," he said. "Our children are taught in school what to do in a fire drill. They are not taught to wait until a fire starts, yell instructions and hope everyone makes it to the exit."

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/72702.html

[mirkwood]

July 30, 2009
By Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) Until now, what I'm about to tell you would have been easily dismissed as a conspiracy theory. It's the kind of story that you might expect from some extreme fringe blogger... the kind of story that never appears in the mainstream media. Only today, it did. And it's not a conspiracy theory, either.

http://standeyo.com/NEWS/09_Health/09_Health_pics/090731.military.swine.flu.jpgCNN (http://standeyo.com/NEWS/09_Health/090730.military.swine.flu.html) is reporting this evening that the U.S. military is gearing up to get involved in the H1N1 swine flu outbreak widely expected to strike the U.S. this fall. As CNN reports, "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."

When it comes to the U.S. military, the word "assist," of course, could mean almost anything. Typically, the U.S. military offers assistance at the end of a rifle. This "assistance" could mean assisting with quarantines, assisting with rounding up infected people or assisting with arresting and imprisoning people who resist vaccine shots.

Just to make it even more interesting, this operation will include "personnel from all branches of the military" and it will involve cooperation with FEMA -- the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA is the group of geniuses who handled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They're the ones who confiscated firearms from law-abiding citizens defending their own homes, then thrust people into toxic temporary housing that caused neurological symptoms and breathing problems.

Internationally, FEMA is known as the Federal Emergency Laughing Stock Administration. But now, with H1N1 swine flu, FEMA will be backed by the power of highly-trained, heavily-armed military personnel.

Imagine One Possible Future in America...

There's a knock on your door. A peek through the window reveals two young soldiers in urban camo fatigues gripping M16 rifles slung across their chests. In front of them, an official-looking doctor person sports an N95 mask and carries a clipboard thick with ruffled papers.

Knock knock. "Is anyone home?"

One of the soldiers catches a glimpse of you peering through a sliver of curtain covering the living room window. "I've got movement." He tightens his grip on his rifle and elbows the soldier next to him. "Someone's home. Knock again."

Knock KNOCK. "We're here from the pandemic response team," insists the doc. "We're here to help. Open up or we'll be forced to come in."

Reluctantly, you inch towards the door and grip the doorknob with damp, sweaty hands. Your pulse pounds hard as you crack open the door.

But the doctor isn't in front of your door anymore. It's one of the soldiers -- the larger one -- and he wedges his foot between your door and its frame, prying it open and forcing his intimidating self into your doorway. "We're with FEMA. Please step away from the door."

"Our records show you haven't received the swine flu vaccine yet," squeaks the doctor from behind the bulk of the domineering soldier now squarely positioned in front of you. "We're here to administer your vaccine."

"I don't want a vaccine," you protest. "They're not safe."

The soldier chuckles, blurts out, "They're as safe as the U.S. government says they are."

The doctor peers out from behind his military companion and makes eye contact. "Sir, as you well know, vaccines have been required for all U.S. residents since President Obama's emergency pandemic declaration last month. Please extend your arm and we'll be on our way."

He produces a syringe and stabs it into a half-filled vaccine cylinder. As he pulls the plunger and liquid races into the syringe, you realize you have mere moments to make a decision. Will you willingly accept the vaccine and avoid being beaten, arrested or shot by the two armed enforcers at your door, or will you resist and pay the consequences?

"Please extend your arm now," the doctor says. The military grunt clenches his jaw, eyeing your hesitation with obvious scorn. He fingers the safety on his rifle and clears his throat...

... what will your choice be?

We're Only Here to Help

That scenario might seem like fiction now, but it could unfold in America in the next few months. What seems outlandish today could become a police state reality before Christmas.

But this is no joke. These people are serious. Even the words tell too much: The order to approve all this is about to be signed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and it's called an "execution order."

So what, exactly, would military personnel be doing in your neighborhood in the event of a swine flu outbreak? The CNN story says they could assist with the "...testing of large numbers of viral samples from infected patients." There's nothing in the story about rounding people up, maintaining quarantine road blocks or cremating the infected bodies of the dead. These realities of a pandemic outbreak are better left unsaid if you're the U.S. military (or the mainstream media).

That's why the full story of what the U.S. military is planning for will never be told to the masses. It's too disturbing. But make no mistake: The military is planning for a worst-case scenario (that's what the military does), and a worst-case pandemic outbreak scenario would involve gunpoint-enforced isolation, military-enforced quarantine zones and most likely the forced vaccination of nearly everyone. Those who resist the vaccinations would be arrested (or detained) and injected at gunpoint, then set free back into the population.

Hollywood has already imagined some of what might happen in such a scenario. Rent the movie The Siege (Bruce Willis and Denzel Washington) to catch an imaginative glimpse of how the U.S. military might handle things in an "emergency situation." It's not a documentary, of course, but much of what it presents seems strangely on track with what's shaping up if a pandemic outbreak occurs.

The very fact that the military is now leaking this story to CNN says something all by itself: The U.S. military is preparing to be stationed on U.S. soil, and whatever freedoms you mistakenly think are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution will be long gone by the time the soldiers arrive at your door.

http://www.naturalnews.com/026732_military_pandemic_outbreak.html

[mirkwood]

\
Tamiflu causes sickness and nightmares in children, study findsMore than half of children taking the swine flu drug Tamiflu experience side-effects such as nausea and nightmares, research suggests.

An estimated 150,000 people with flu symptoms were prescribed the drug through a new hotline and website last week, according to figures revealed yesterday.
Studies of children attending three schools in London and one in the South West showed that 51-53 per cent had one or more side-effects from the medication, which is offered to everyone in England with swine flu symptoms.
The research by the Health Protection Agency emerged as Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer for England, said that swine flu infections ?may have reached a plateau?.
Releasing the latest figures, Sir Liam said that an estimated 110,000 new cases of the H1N1 virus were diagnosed by doctors in the week to Sunday. That did not include those using the new National Pandemic Flu Service for England to obtain antiviral drugs without seeing their GP.
Sir Liam said that the deaths of 27 people in England were confirmed to have been linked to swine flu, compared with 26 last week. As of Wednesday morning 793 people were in hospital in England with the virus, and 81 were in intensive care.
Yesterday Natasha Newman, 16, of Highgate, North London, was seriously ill in hospital in Athens after contracting swine flu while on holiday on the island of Cephalonia. Her parents, Julian Newman and Nikki Boughton, were at her bedside at the Agia Sofia children?s hospital, said a spokeswoman for Mr Newman?s business, J. Newman Textiles. ?This is a very distressing and worrying time,? she said.
Peter Holden, the British Medical Association?s lead expert on swine flu, suggested that Tamiflu was being overused and did not need to be offered to everyone with mild symptoms. ?The National Pandemic Flu Service has been a great success, and was needed to take the pressure off GPs,? he said. ?But the threshold for getting Tamiflu should be quite high.
?For patients who are not in the high-risk groups ? such as pregnant women, people with bad asthma or with suppressed immune systems ? this virus typically causes mild symptoms and does not require a course of Tamiflu. Patients in the at-risk groups should be referred to their GP, who will use their clinical judgment.?
A total of 103 children took part in the London study, of which 85 were given the drug as a precaution after a classmate received a diagnosis of swine flu. Of those, 45 experienced one or more side-effects. The most common was nausea (29 per cent), followed by stomach pain or cramps (20 per cent) and problems sleeping (12 per cent). Almost one in five had a ?neuropsychiatric side-effect?, such as inability to think clearly, nightmares and ?behaving strangely?, according to the research, published in Eurosurveillance, a journal of disease.
The study was carried out in April and May when the drug was being issued as a preventive measure. The findings were echoed by a study of children at a school in the South West where a pupil had caught the disease in Mexico.
Health officials in Japan have recommended against prescribing Tamiflu to teenagers over fears it causes a rise in ?neuropsychiatric events?. The researchers said that clinical trials had shown that about 20 per cent of adults reported side-effects of either nausea or vomiting after taking Tamiflu.
Both the Department of Health and the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory products Agency said that the drug was safe, and that the benefits of treating early symptoms and avoiding potentially serious complications could outweigh the risks of side-effects.
Sir Liam said that despite a 10 per cent rise in the estimated number of cases in the week to Sunday, the latest figures reinforced ?a growing impression we have had a peak?. He said that a surge would still be expected in the winter flu season, but added: ?I think we are a little more confident we may be seeing a downturn in this flu.?
Scale of the outbreak
? 110,000 new swine flu cases in England last week, based on data from GPs
? 150,000 people obtaining Tamiflu without seeing a GP since last Thursday
? 51% to 53% proportion of children reporting side-effects from taking Tamiflu
? 1 in 158 people in England have contacted their GP with flu-like symptoms since outbreaks began. The rate is 1 in 77 for children aged 1 to 4
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[mirkwood]

Vaccine Plan in U.S. May Endanger Supply, Lancet Says (Update1)

By Tom Randall
July 31 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. plan to rely on swine flu vaccines without ingredients to stretch the supply would reduce the number of available shots just when other countries need them most, the British journal Lancet (http://www.thelancet.com/) said in an editorial.
The ingredients, called adjuvants, have never been approved for flu vaccines in the U.S. and are controversial because some studies show they cause immune disorders in mice. The World Health Organization (http://www.who.int/en) recommended on July 7 that adjuvants be used to boost global amounts of vaccine, and the Lancet criticized the U.S. for plans to rely exclusively on standard formulations.
The U.S. Health and Human Services Department declared a public health emergency over swine flu in April, giving the Food and Drug Administration the power to allow the use of unapproved medical products including adjuvants. The health department agreed to purchase more than $415 million of the vaccine additives, while saying it may not use them if enough shots are available for U.S. residents.
?The USA must support the use of dose-sparing strategies to avoid depletion of an already short vaccine supply,? said the authors of the Lancet (http://www.thelancet.com/) editorial. ?All countries will require the vaccine, but current manufacturing capacity will not be able to meet this demand.?
Spreading Quickly
A pandemic of swine flu, also known as H1N1, has infected more than 1 million people in the U.S. and swept across the globe. Drugmakers are racing to get a vaccine ready for October, when lower temperatures may bolster a wave of outbreaks across the northern hemisphere.
The Lancet, a journal of medical research founded in 1828, was the second-most cited general medical publication in the world in 2007, according to the Institute of Scientific Information?s Journal Citation Reports. The institute evaluates the impact of academic publications based on how many times their articles are cited elsewhere.
Adjuvants are mixes of oil and water that trigger a stronger response (http://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/topics/adjuvants/en/index.html) in the body to antigen, the substance that induces immunity. The additives, whose effectiveness vary by flu strain, may boost the strength of the antigen as much as 10- fold, as was the case with a bird flu vaccine approved in Europe, said John Treanor (http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=John+Treanor&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1), a professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology at the University of Rochester, in an interview.
MF59, an oil-and-water adjuvant made by Novartis AG (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=NOVN%3AVX) and approved in Europe, has been safely given to more than 40 million people, mostly adults, to prevent seasonal flu, according to the company.
Adjuvant Tests
The U.S. plans human tests to determine safety and effectiveness of flu adjuvants and will ?review all clinical data to inform our decision on their potential use,? said Bill Hall (http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Bill%0AHall&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1), a spokesman for the Health and Human Services Department, in an e-mail.
?We have provided significant support to the World Health Organization?s vaccine programs, and we will continue to work to support our international partners and developing nations around the world,? Hall said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agreed to pay London-based GlaxoSmithKline Plc (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=GSK%3ALN) and Novartis, based in Basel, Switzerland, more than $415 million for adjuvants that could be added to the swine flu vaccines, according to a July 13 statement (http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2009pres/07/20090713b.html).
The additives may not be necessary if enough shots can be produced without them, HHS officials said. Authorities at the CDC said July 29 that 40 million shots of unadjuvanted vaccine may be available to the U.S. in September, earlier than previously reported, with 80 million more doses ready in October.
Egg Yields
Drugmakers have found it difficult to cultivate the quantities of virus necessary for an H1N1 vaccine. The strain yields 50 percent to 75 percent less antigen compared with a typical seasonal flu strain, according to the WHO. The virus didn?t initially grow well in eggs, the principal medium used by the industry, vaccine makers said.
Scientists have significantly improved yields in eggs recently, which should ease pressure on manufacturers, said Robin Robinson, chief of the Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority, the U.S. agency in charge of buying the vaccine. A decision on adjuvant use hasn?t been made, he said July 29 during a meeting at the Atlanta-based CDC.
?Already our development efforts have resulted in an improvement of yields,? Donna Cary (http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Donna+Cary&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1), a spokeswoman for Paris- based Sanofi-Aventis SA, said yesterday in telephone interview. ?Certainly every improvement in yield potentially means more vaccine sooner.?
Yields still appear to be lower than typically seen with seasonal flu, she said.
Glaxo?s adjuvant has proven safe and effective in clinical trials with 39,000 people, said Lisa Behrens (http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Lisa+Behrens&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1), a spokeswoman for the company, in an e-mail. Glaxo will conduct more studies and continue to monitor safety after the vaccines are in use, she said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Randall (http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Tom+Randall&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1) in New York at [email protected] ([email protected])
Last Updated: July 30, 2009 19:52 EDT