Swine Flu: Obama's Katrina?

[Guest TrueMetis]

Oh, plenty of questions were asked of all levels of government by us Canadians. And, yes, blame was pointed at the PM's office.

But this is different in that it is affecting far more citizens than SARs, and it's killing the young instead of the old. Also, for the third or fourth time, we've had about a year to prepare for H1N1 and are a day late and a dollar short. It is a far worse transgression.

Swine Flu was sweeping college campuses during the last week of August, for goodness sake. UW was reporting around 3000 infected by the first couple of days in September.

It's just a flu, if you get it you will not know for sure if you have swine flu or seasonal flu but the treatment is the same keep your ass in bed and drink a lot of water. There problem solved.

[sharkman]

So what? Government is not obligated to save our asses from plague and pestilence beyond normal epidemiological actions and education. If you get the flu and/or die from H1N1, tough noogies.

Dude, all I'm saying is that normal actions were not taken soon enough. You'd make a good Canadian, apathetic as you are.

[bush_cheney2004]

Dude, all I'm saying is that normal actions were not taken soon enough. You'd make a good Canadian, apathetic as you are.

Soon enough for what? Normal actions do not include miraculously perfecting a vaccine in record time.

What are you so afraid of?

[Moonlight Graham]

The Liberals were not turfed because of incompetent SARS actions.

I don't remember much gov't blame going around with SARS. I thought the Ontario gov't and health officials did a good job of containing it. It came, some people got sick, health officials reacted swiftly, then it left. They definitely put the clamp down hard in the Ottawa area. No needless visitors at hospitals & retirement homes etc. i remember the 1st time i ever used one of those hand-sanitizer dispensers was after the SARS period when i went to visit a hospital.

Government is not obligated to save our asses from plague and pestilence beyond normal epidemiological actions and education. If you get the flu and/or die from H1N1, tough noogies.

Gov't certainly has some responsibility to keep us safe. So you think the gov't should stop checking immigrants and refugees who come into our countries for TB, lice etc.? Gov't doesn't hold ALL responsibility for things like H1N1, but one of our governments key responsibilities is to keep the collective people safe, including from this stuff.

[bush_cheney2004]

I don't remember much gov't blame going around with SARS. I thought the Ontario gov't and health officials did a good job of containing it.

Ontario's actions were amateur hour compared to British Columbia. They invented policies on the fly. Turns out that Canada had no national center for management of communicable diseases or other health disasters.

Gov't certainly has some responsibility to keep us safe. So you think the gov't should stop checking immigrants and refugees who come into our countries for TB, lice etc.? Gov't doesn't hold ALL responsibility for things like H1N1, but one of our governments key responsibilities is to keep the collective people safe, including from this stuff.

What part of the word "epidemiological" do you not understand? The US no longer dusts immigrants with DDT.

Edited October 25, 2009 by bush_cheney2004

[gc1765]

Swine flu has been around for about a year, plenty of time for your government to get a vaccination developed

The outbreak started towards the end of March of this year...that's about 7 months.

Considering that it takes time to produce a vaccine for millions of people, and that's on top of the regular seasonal flu vaccine, and that the virus could easily mutate making the vaccine useless, I guess the question is...what would you have done differently?

[Moonlight Graham]

What part of the word "epidemiological" do you not understand?

I'll admit it: the entire word. Had to google it right now

[bush_cheney2004]

The outbreak started towards the end of March of this year...that's about 7 months.

Considering that it takes time to produce a vaccine for millions of people, and that's on top of the regular seasonal flu vaccine, and that the virus could easily mutate making the vaccine useless, I guess the question is...what would you have done differently?

Such logical observations are obviously being ignored. If production had shifted to the lower yielding H1N1 vaccine process, there would be hue and cry from other elements of the population demanding that seasonal flu vaccine not be impacted because of morbidity in other populations. If government had gone the manadatory H1N1 vaccination route, it would have failed miserably if only because of supply and distribution. If quarantines were mandated (not effective for this virus), then the ACLU would have filed suit.

[GostHacked]

Dude, all I'm saying is that normal actions were not taken soon enough. You'd make a good Canadian, apathetic as you are.

You realize that they are late on the delivery of the vaccine already right? Some stats show over 60% of the population has already been exposed to the virus, and now the vaccinations will work in waves instead of a one shot deal. Some people get it now, some later, and some even later or not at all. This is going against the notion that it is a pandemic or really anything to worry about.

It's another cry wolf. When we actually encounter another virus that will actually cause much death, then we can prepare for that. If we overreact to all strains of the flu every freakin year, then we spend more time worrying about getting the next vaccine instead of living life and enjoying it. When we need to be really concerned the rest of the population is going to be apathetic.

[sharkman]

You realize that they are late on the delivery of the vaccine already right? Some stats show over 60% of the population has already been exposed to the virus, and now the vaccinations will work in waves instead of a one shot deal. Some people get it now, some later, and some even later or not at all. This is going against the notion that it is a pandemic or really anything to worry about.

It's another cry wolf. When we actually encounter another virus that will actually cause much death, then we can prepare for that. If we overreact to all strains of the flu every freakin year, then we spend more time worrying about getting the next vaccine instead of living life and enjoying it. When we need to be really concerned the rest of the population is going to be apathetic.

This is not a "cry wolf" by the world health organization or of the world governing bodies. H1N1 is killing more than seasonal flu strains and is killing otherwise healthy 20-something year olds, something typcial flues simply don't do. The American government didn't call a national emergency, something that costs millions of dollars, for no reason.

People will over react about anything, this virus included. But that should not cloud our judgement to become worriers or to ignore any declaration of national emergency.

[bush_cheney2004]

This is not a "cry wolf" by the world health organization or of the world governing bodies. H1N1 is killing more than seasonal flu strains and is killing otherwise healthy 20-something year olds, something typcial flues simply don't do. The American government didn't call a national emergency, something that costs millions of dollars, for no reason.

No, the US government declared a national emergency to invoke emergency health measures and protocols, just as is done for any pending hurricane event.

People will over react about anything, this virus included. But that should not cloud our judgement to become worriers or to ignore any declaration of national emergency.

You don't live in the USA, do you?