Bush: Military may have to help if bird flu breaks out

[PATH]

H5N1 is the official designation of the present Avian Flu Virus. The present mortality rate in humans infected is app. 50%.

H5N1 is mutating as we speak. Will it evolve into an aerobic spreader with a human vector? Hard to say! National Geographic has an excellent article on the subject this month.

Vaccine production cannot start until we have a sample of what will kill us. It will take a few months to develop, manufacture, and distribute any vaccine. (Thank your friendly neighborhood trial lawyers. Due to suits, US capapbility to perform the aforementioned, is very limited.

My advice: 1) Get the 8 day course of Tamiflu for use if you are infected.

2) Get a course of powerful anyibiotics to deal with secondary
bacterial infection.

3) Lay in a goodly supply of rubber gloves and masks.

4) Stock up on powdered goods such as milk and make your own
bread. Stock up on all other food items.

5) Lay in a hefty supply of ammo because it will get ugly before
things get better.

Remember ladies and gents if not this time then maybe next time.

 

[Michigander]

If you had TB you were by LAW placed in a TB Sanatorium for months. The polio vaccine came out when I was a child. My mother had a sister die of polio at age 13. She told me when there was a case of polio reported in a town NOBODY would go there.

And how was the military used to fight TB (or any other pandemic) previously?

 

[artherd]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush said Tuesday that the possibility of an avian flu pandemic is among the reasons he wants Congress to give him the power to use the nation's military in law enforcement roles in the United States.

I think I just threw up in my own mouth.

 

[Lobotomy Boy]

I've never seriously believed that the Neocons were behind 9/11, but Bush's attempt to repeal Posse Comitatus has me entertaining the idea for the first time. This is flat-out insane. Yes, we are overdue for a pandemic, and avian flu may be it, but the leap of logic needed to get from there to repealing posse comitatus indicates that the Bush administration is just grasping for an excuse to repeal one of the most important laws preventing us from tyranny.

I once had a discussion with author Hunter S. Thompson about the similarities between Bush's rise to power and his methods for consolidating power and those used by Hitler. I wasn't comparing Bush to a genocidal maniac; I was just commenting on the similarities of their governing methods. The most striking similarities involved comparisons between Karl Rove and Josef Goebels. Again, I wasn't commenting on Rove's morals or comparing him to a mass murderer--I was just pointing out the similarities between the administrative methods both men used. I was comaring the methods of Rove and Bush to Goebels and Hitler, not their motives.

This latest development has me wondering if I wasn't too kind when I assumed that the motives of Bush and Rove were measurably more benevolent than those of Hitler and Goebels.

Folks, I'm really starting to think the ????ehammer has begun to come down. Let's just hope that all our discussions on the importance of freedom and liberty don't evaporate like so much blustery hot air and that we all don't just roll over and urinate on our soft, fleshy underbellies in the face of true tyranny.

 

[EasternShore]

I have gone to the absurd to make the point in this thread:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=159389&page=1&pp=25

None of this is about the bird flu or ebola or meteors or terrorist or Saddam or anything else that might threaten this country. This is consolidation of power. In the worst way. Bush is becoming a master a playing the media and asking congress for more power. Example:

Bush: My nominee to replace O'Connor, Meirs!

Media: Meirs this Meirs That!

Bush: Psst! Hey congress I want Posse Comitatus repealed, what do you think?

Media: Meirs! Meirs! Meirs!

He has done this several times. Having voted for him both times I used to applaud the way he played the media. Now he is starting to scare me.

 

[Lucky]

They destroyed millions of chickens in Vancouver area because of avian flu infections. The virus is already spread, if it mutates that virus will be spread too. Men with rifles enforcing curfews and confiscating personal firearms can't stop infections.

And I should point out that if you quarantine a town because you see symptoms then you are in folly. When you show symptoms it means you've been a carrier for long enough to infect many others.

On the bright side, it is almost guaranteed that no virus will kill everyone and everything, because that kills the virus too A productive virus, the one that Darwin suggests will survive to reproduce the most, is the virus that leaves the host alive to help it transmit to other hosts. They tried to kill all the rabbits in Australia witha manufactured virus, and the virus mutated. The super deadly virus they invented died out, because it's hosts died out. What came to be was a dynamic equilibruim between a new less-lethal virus, and the rabbit population.




Don't worry, be happy.


Oh yea, except for your government trying to consolidate power. That's a little disconcerting. Well, try to stay out of trouble, keep the noise down at nights, and remember Canada is too cold, not worth invading. Really, you won't like it here. Funny accents and igloos, and cold, so cold.

 

[spartacus2002]

I, too, have for years studied pre-Nazi and Nazi Germany, because I have always been fascinated by how a proud, intelligent nation with a great culture could fall under the sway of an authoritarian government and a madman like Hitler.

A nation like ours, birthed in civil disobedience and insurrection, forgets its founding principles as the fiery forces of history cool with the passing of time. Every government, even those started with the noblest of intentions, falls prey to the desire for order and control as it forgets its past. It eventually becomes the thing it sought to destroy. It is the nature of government to do so, because, as George Washington said, "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master."

We have much to learn from history, such as how the true downfall of a nation lies in the citizens allowing the government to define the nation, and how the greatest corrupting influence is in allowing fellow citizens to say such things as "if I have nothing to hide, why shouldn't I let the government search my house/car/library records?"

 

[Biker]

Damn Spartacus, wish I'd said that!
Biker

 

[spartacus2002]

While Bush's idea of using the military to enforce a quarantine is scary, most states already have such laws on the books. In Virginia for example, if public health officials declare an emergency quarantine, people can be quarantined for the duration of time that the disease is communicable. They have to give you a hearing within 48 hours if you request it.

Big difference between quarantining one infected individual at a time, and having soldiers shoot anybody trying to leave a cordon around Richmond or NYC.

 

[Chrontius]

Five bucks says they wouldn't be bothering to ship adequate supplies into the cordoned area. (conveniently weakening the immune systems of the malnourished and such)

On the other hand, remember SARS? That was kind of a letdown, in a good way.

 

[rick_reno]

While I remain oppossed to the way Bush is going about this - I am convinced the military is going be the only govt entity that will be even remotely capable of managing a flu pandemic.

 

[1911 guy]

Just the facts, Ma'am.

The media spin on bird flu (H5N1) is far more dangerous to us than the virus. Look at population densities, infections and mortalities in the affected areas. High population, low infection per capita and high mortality rates. This virus is not much of a threat in the grand scheme of things. Well over half of the people infected by H5N1 have died. What we will see is the virus mutating into a strain less virulent or it will burn itself out in a few more years. The real danger here is the vise-like hold our government wants to place on us to protect us from a non-issue.

 

[Thin Black Line]

Avian flu? Nah, nothing to worry about....just stay calm while we take a
sample

Nothing to see here, move along, folks.....

 

[Lupinus]

If it goes to epidemic levels then yes the military should help. But it should in no way shape or form be placed in control. Doing that will be the end of civil freedom's. Once they have us under their complete control and have all of our gun's there is nothing to make them give it back, and likly it will never happen.

So yes. Use the military to help keep area's seperated to keep the virus from spreading. But do not give them complete control over anything. And if you think with mass hystaria goign on I am giving up my gun you are out of your mind. Why should I give up my gun? Are you going to station men there to fight off someone trying to rob me of anything of use so it is my family that starves instead of them?

I used to support Bush. He is quickly loosing my respect. He is still better then Kerry, he has that much. I can even see the good, if I don't completly agree with it, in the patriot act. But this is become redicules now. If we don't get better people in DC we are doomed.

 

[Alex45ACP]

If we don't get better people in DC we are doomed.

Unfortunately, people say this but then they vote for the same people next time around. Things will only get worse.

Get ready; the police state is coming.

 

[Leatherneck]

I think Bush is exactly right when he says:

"One option is the use of a military that's able to plan and move," he said. "So that's why I put it on the table. I think it's an important debate for Congress to have."

I just don't share his presumed view of the outcome of that debate should be. What a glorious thing it would be if Congress had the debate and came out with: "Knock it off. Right now. Creeping federalism has to stop."

Yeah, right. Dream on, Leatherneck.

TC

 

[Lupinus]

People given the chance at more power over other's will rarly pass it up, it's human nature to want to lead the pack.

And yes I know that sometime's we vote for the party we complain about but voting for the lesser of evil's is better then no vote at all and taking a chance on a bigger evil then the one you voted for.

Educating people on politic's would do much to get rid of the two party system we are locked in and not make it such of a situation of the lesser of two evil's. But untill that happen's a vote for someone that is the lesser of the evil's is better then nothing at all.

 

[RealGun]

I think Bush has learned to preempt criticism. While he will be criticized for bringing this up...criticized for anything regardless...he has a defense when SHTF and people call for the military as a way of getting the job done in realistic terms.

The concept is partly rhetorical. If people don't like the prospect of military involvement, new empowerment actually, then let them think of a better idea.

 

[Thin Black Line]

Flight of the Bird Flu Continues

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051010/ap_on_he_me/europe_bird_flu

Towns quarantined behind checkpoints......