President Obama has declared a national health emergency over the H1N1 flu outbreak. From the story:
President Barack Obama declared the swine flu outbreak a national emergency and empowered his health secretary to suspend federal requirements and speed treatment for thousands of infected people. The declaration that Obama signed late Friday authorized Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to bypass federal rules so health officials can respond more quickly to the outbreak, which has killed more than 1,000 people in the United States.
The goal is to remove bureaucratic roadblocks and make it easier for sick people to seek treatment and medical providers to provide it immediately. That could mean fewer hurdles involving Medicare, Medicaid or health privacy regulations.
What does that mean exactly? What roadblocks keep people from necessary treatment? What regulations are being bypassed, and if they need to be bypassed to make the health care system work properly and efficiently, why are they there in the first place? Is this really a national emergency? I’m not saying it isn’t, but the government is fueled too often by hysteria these days. We need more information.
October 24th, 2009 | 2:23 pm
The process of approving and dispersing drugs, vaccines, etc. is necessarily and appropriately ponderous and slow, to allow lots of scrutiny, to allow care. Yes, a waiter can run across the resturant with a tray of hot food items and hardly ever spill it all on a customer, but in practice they move more slowly than they absolutely have to to avoid incident.
It is at the same time possible to move faster, and because of the delay in production, we have to do that now. This is not hysteria. It is procedure. If it was hysteria the order would not have been signed on Fri PM. A late Fri signing dampens the hysteria effect.
October 24th, 2009 | 4:14 pm
I read that hospitals are not allowed to set up service tents, etc. more than a certain distance away from the building. So that might be one of the “roadblocks” to which it refers.
FWIW, I am unable to trust anything the government is saying about H1N1 because we don’t know for sure how many cases there *actually* are since they stopped testing.
October 24th, 2009 | 6:03 pm
[...] I am glad to hear this response from Secondhand Smoke regarding the emergency declaration by President Obama. Wesley J. Smith had [...]
October 24th, 2009 | 8:19 pm
It’s not only not serious, it’s actually less lethal than traditional flu such that you are better off getting swine flu:
http://www.fumento.com/disease/pandemicpolitical.html
October 24th, 2009 | 8:46 pm
Just heard on the radio today that young people aren’t being allowed to visit certain types of hospital units locally; can’t remember now entirely but one of them was obstetric units. Not sure why. Doesn’t seem as if government involvement is necessary when hospitals are able to do a good job on their own. Lord knows government intervention is called for in things that hospitals do that are wrong, and then where’s the government, the statutes, the courts, the police, the d.a., the attorney general, the health department, the feds, etc.?
Just as doctors get idiotic when legal issues arise in medicine, Obama like Hillary seems to have decided that being a lawyer and in the White House somehow qualifies one to be involved in “health care.” Oh, Lord, imagine Obama coming at you with a white coat and a stethoscope. Or Hillary for that matter. How’s that to inspire a nightmare. Or Pelosi or the host of others who fail to comprehend that medicine has no place in politics and vice versa. This is what you get when you tolerate split infinitives and suite numbers following rather than preceding street addresses — liberals ending up running Washington. There IS a national emergency — and it’s them, and it’s Obama having been elected to the presidency. Sure he’s always talking about crisis and national emergency — to deflect attention from the realization that he’s it. Just like the death culture people want OTHER people dead.
October 24th, 2009 | 10:58 pm
And if the Obama administration isn’t a national health emergency I don’t know what is. Well I guess everyone who’s been a sheep, and what’s happened to what used to be the medical profession, is part of it too.
October 24th, 2009 | 11:25 pm
holyterror, they aren’t testing because there’s not much point to testing. I asked. The tests are expensive and the treatment’s about the same whether you have H1N1 or the regular fall flu.
What you can see is the large number of schools that are closing because something like 40% of their students are contagious. They’re sending kids home left and right in our school district, anybody with a fever. Few are dying, but the contagion rate is very high and action is needed to stifle it.
Greg Laden had it right. This is hardly hysteria. This is a very reasonable response to an urgent, but not necessarily deadly, situation. Cut the red tape and get the job done.
Don’t worry about the neo-cons, they live in fear and want everyone else to do the same.
October 25th, 2009 | 11:45 am
I don’t necessarily question the seriousness of a flu outbreak per se, but where are the numbers/statistics for this? And compared to a normal flu season?
It ought to be easy enough to justify a “national emergency” declaration by just stating the facts — which I think would be front-page news by now — common knowledge if this were the case.
But all _I_ hear at least, are rumors and vague hand waving. You would think over the last few months, reading the serious press, you would be able to track the uptick in cases, and get a feel for what is actually going on, and in perspective to a normal flu season. But all I’m hearing are spook stories oddly short on “compared to last year” straight talk.
This is starting to sound like trying to get honest existing home sales numbers from the NAR.
October 25th, 2009 | 1:45 pm
I’d love to actually see some citations, padraig, on these schools w/ 40% infection rates shutting down…
October 25th, 2009 | 8:42 pm
padraig,
I don’t know what the testing and numbers has to do with “neocons” or any other political label.
From the perspective of science, it doesn’t make sense NOT to test, because that is the only way to get real numbers on susceptibility and death rates.
As for expense, not testing will end up being moreso in the long run. Just consider the fact that, without testing, there is no way to be sure people have had this strain of the virus. So even those who have had an (unconfirmed) bought of H1N1, who would be then immune to getting it again, will still be (And are) advised to get a vaccine, stay away from work, etc., as if they never had had it. And if they come down with another flu-like illness, they will still be treated with the same more expensive treatments.
Actually, when it comes to medicine, I am more of a suspicious libertarian. And this whole thing smells weirdly of money for the pharmaceutical companies.
October 25th, 2009 | 10:27 pm
ECM: “I’d love to actually see some citations, padraig, on these schools w/ 40% infection rates shutting down…”
Presumably there are newspapers in your area? TV news? Do you have any kids in a public school? It’s all over the place here. As near as I can tell most school districts in the USA have at least a school or two that has shut down for some period of time. Sorry I don’t have statistics, feel free to post your own.
holyterror: “padraig,
I don’t know what the testing and numbers has to do with “neocons” or any other political label.”
It doesn’t. Labeling a reasonable response to a serious outbreak as “hysterical” is part of the neocon strategy for discrediting Obama at any cost.
“From the perspective of science, it doesn’t make sense NOT to test, because that is the only way to get real numbers on susceptibility and death rates.”
Absolutely correct. However, economics are a factor too, as always. And it just doesn’t make economic sense to test everyone. The CDC tests samples and project to the population from that. That’s standard procedure on any widespread disease or most any condition at all.
“As for expense, not testing will end up being moreso in the long run. Just consider the fact that, without testing, there is no way to be sure people have had this strain of the virus. So even those who have had an (unconfirmed) bought of H1N1, who would be then immune to getting it again, will still be (And are) advised to get a vaccine, stay away from work, etc., as if they never had had it. And if they come down with another flu-like illness, they will still be treated with the same more expensive treatments.”
I don’t believe H1N1 treatment is any more expensive than “regular” flu, so I’m not clear what you’re getting at here.
“Actually, when it comes to medicine, I am more of a suspicious libertarian. And this whole thing smells weirdly of money for the pharmaceutical companies.”
Normally I’d be right in the same cynical boat with you, but I’ve known enough real people with real H1N1 to accept that this is real. Plus there’s no exotic expensive treatment besides the H1N1 vaccine. But like you I’ll continue to take most every health warning with a grain of salt. Ultimately we all have to make our own health care decisions (with or without Obamacare, Wes).
October 26th, 2009 | 12:33 am
At this point the Whitehouse’s credibility it so low that this, and any other “crisis” they proclaim is ignored.
“Wolf! Wolf!”
October 26th, 2009 | 10:08 am
padraig,
The only “approved treatments” for H1N1 are Tamiflu and Relenza. Whether or not these are acctually effective, they are currently being reserved only for “cases” of H1N1. They are more expensive than other treatments.
You have to admit, though, that inoculating everyone even when they have had the flu is an expensive idea, right? And treating people as if they haven’t had it even when they might have?
As for making decisions about our own health care, I totally agree. I feel strongly that the CDC’s policy to not test (And thus my health insurance co.’s refusal to pay for the H1N1 test) hurts my ability to make an informed decision about how to care for my children.
I have known many many people with “suspected” H1N1, some of whom were quite ill, and some who recovered easily. But without knowing for sure who is really getting sick and why, how can I decide on such important issues as vaccinating or not? Every other vaccination has data on infection and death rates. There is no such thing for this, and now there will not be.
October 26th, 2009 | 3:47 pm
holyterror: “You have to admit, though, that inoculating everyone even when they have had the flu is an expensive idea, right?”
Yep. Ounce of prevention, pound of cure, though. I’m not sure that having had H1N1 guarantees immunity anyway. Influenza and viruses in general are very good at mutating. I don’t have a problem with erring on the side of caution in this case.
“Every other vaccination has data on infection and death rates. There is no such thing for this, and now there will not be.”
You can see data on the actual flu itself at:
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/
Data on vaccination adverse events may be found at:
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/vaccination/index.htm#safety
October 26th, 2009 | 5:17 pm
padraig: You don’t have to give any statistics, but surely you can give one single citation for “As near as I can tell most school districts in the USA have at least a school or two that has shut down for some period of time.” I just googled “school shut down h1n1 flu” and it appears that several hundred schools closed in the spring (when the absurd hysteria hit its first peak–also, if you think that means that “most school districts” will have “at least a school or two” included in such a small total number then you’re really, really, really innumerate) but that now CDC guidelines (even in the current new wave of hysteria) are that schools not close. So again, can you give ANY evidence about your absurd claim above??
October 26th, 2009 | 9:51 pm
Brian, you’ve apparently never heard of that Google thing, so I’ll do it for you.
When I start typing “H1N1 School Closings,” I didn’t even get past the “sch”. Hit enter, I get 599,000 hits.
There are some statistics here (I promise this is the only time I will ever cite USA Today):
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-10-25-obama-swine-flu-emergency_N.htm
That one mentions 351 closings in 19 states.
There are many more, take your pick. Some of them are even from Fox News, so you won’t have to worry about having your mind corrupted by the mainstream media.
So I was imprecise in saying, and forgive me for quoting myself, “most school districts in the USA have at least a school or two that has shut down for some period of time.” But 351 schools in 19 states ain’t much better.
So like I said, feel free to do your own homework.
October 27th, 2009 | 11:20 am
BTW, Brian, “innumerate?” Did you just make that word up? I have an MBA in management information systems, so I think it’s hilarious you’d call me that.
October 27th, 2009 | 12:40 pm
Hey padraig, try to increase your reading comprehension skills [insult deleted]. Here’s what I wrote: “I just googled “school shut down h1n1 flu” and it appears that several hundred schools closed in the spring.”
Tool.
October 27th, 2009 | 3:52 pm
BTW pedraig, you should probably take your own advice and use internet search engines.
(Main Entry: in·nu·mer·ate
Function: adjective
Date: 1959
: marked by an ignorance of mathematics and the scientific approach)
I have a PhD and (not so) I think it’s hilarious that you throw around your resume as if anyone cares and as if that makes up for your inability to get basic facts right or to bother to actually read posts with a modicum of care before responding.
October 27th, 2009 | 10:53 pm
Wes, you forgot to delete another insult in Brian’s 2nd last post.
And Brian, the schools I was talking about closed and reopened in October. Unless you’re posting from Australia that’s not the spring.
So what’s your Ph.D. in, cheap shots? Must have gotten it over the Internet. We got taxi drivers in my town with Ph.D.’s. Doesn’t matter if you know big words if you don’t know how to use them.
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