Bush Considers Military Role in Flu Fight
By JENNIFER LOVEN
Associated Press Writer
President Bush, increasingly concerned about a possible avian flu pandemic,
revealed Tuesday that any part of the country where the virus breaks out
could likely be quarantined and that he is considering using the military to
enforce it.
"The best way to deal with a pandemic is to isolate it and keep it isolated
in the region in which it begins," he said during a wide- ranging Rose
Garden news conference.
The president was asked if his recent talk of giving the military the lead
in responding to large natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and other
catastrophes was in part the result of his concerns that state and local
personnel aren't up to the task of a flu outbreak.
"Yes," he replied.
After the bungled initial federal response to Katrina, Bush suggested
putting the Pentagon in charge of search-and-rescue efforts in times of a
major terrorist attack or similarly catastrophic natural disaster. He has
argued that the armed forces have the ability to quickly mobilize the
equipment, manpower and communications capabilities needed in times of
crisis.
But such a shift could require a change in law, and some in Congress and the
states worry it would increase the power of the federal government at the
expense of local control.
Bush made clear that the potential for an outbreak of avian flu is much on
his mind, and has him talking with "as many (world) leaders as I could find"
and reading a book on the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic that killed 40 million
and consulting staff and experts.
"I have thought through the scenarios of what an avian flu outbreak could
mean," he said.
He acknowledged that a quarantine _ an idea sure to alarm many in the public
_ is no small thing for the government to undertake and that enforcing it
would be tricky.
"It's one thing to shut down airplanes," Bush said. "It's another thing to
prevent people from coming in to get exposed to the avian flu."
He urged Congress to give him the ability to use the military, if needed.
"I think the president ought to have all ... assets on the table to be able
to deal with something this significant," he said.
Bush also said he has been urging world leaders to improve reporting on
outbreaks of the virus, and exploring how to speed the production of a
spray, now in limited supply, that "can maybe help arrest the spread of the
disease."
"One of the issues is how do we encourage the manufacturing capacity of the
country, and maybe the world, to be prepared to deal with the outbreak of a
pandemic?" he said.
Experts agree there will certainly be another flu pandemic _ a new human flu
strain that goes global. However, it is unknown when or how bad that global
epidemic will be _ or whether the H5N1 bird flu strain now circulating in
Asian poultry will be its origin.
Just in case, experts are tracking the avian flu, which has swept through
poultry populations in large swaths of Asia since 2003, jumped to humans and
killed at least 65 people.
Most human cases have been linked to a contact with sick birds, but the
World Health Organization has warned the virus could mutate into a form that
spreads easily among humans _ changing it from a bird virus to a human
pandemic flu strain.
Commentary:
For those of you with whom I have used the term Bio-Fascism in desribing the
merging of the (1) military medical establishment, (2) public health
bureaucracies, to include the ostensible federal regulator FDA, and (3) the
Pharmas, Mr. Bush's remarks on Oct 4th are the latest indication of the
nations' insidious slide toward Orwellian State-sponsored mandatory
vaccinations.
What will American citizens do when nurses, accompanied by armed police and
soldiers, come to the door and order them to be vaccinated? Since 9/11,
Federal and State laws have been changed to now allow for this. The American
people do not understand that the bioterrorism authorities passed by
Congress since 9/11 make the USA Patriot Act look tame by comparison.
Mandatory vaccination under an emergency declaration can be based simply on
a "potential" threat from bioterrorism using the same type of
politically-motivated "intelligence" as that used to justify the Iraq War.
This emergency authority, under the BioShield Act, was exercised on Dec 10,
2004 by former Deputy Secretary of Defense Wolfowitz, who used a baseless
assertion of an anthrax "threat" to resume anthrax vaccinations in the
military. Former HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson complied with Wolfowitz'
request for an emergency declaration on Jan 14, 2005 -- the week before he
left government to head a biodefense company.
Already, the Pentagon is demanding that anthrax vaccine refusers who are
awaiting appeal of the illegal order to take the vaccine submit DNA samples
that are to be placed in the FBI's national database of criminals. This is
the de facto criminalization of vaccine refusal, and because of emergency
authorities enacted in the 2004 Project BioShield Act, ALL American
civilians can also be subjected to the same erosion in civil rights.
Further, if the Pentagon is allowed to take over in a flu pandemic, the
"mission" will override any considerations of Constitutional rights. The
illegal DoD anthrax vaccine program -- which for six years was enforced with
courts-martial and jailings of refusers until it was stopped by a federal
judge -- will become the template for accomplishing this "mission". And
Science that does not support the "mission" of saving America will be
suppressed, just as it has with the illegal DoD anthrax vaccine program.
Such a Pentagon-run program will be administered by the ethically corrupt
military medical establishment, which is not subjected to the same ethical
standards as the soldiers punished for the crimes at Abu Ghraib.
There is no accountability, because soldiers cannot sue the Pentagon for
medical malpractice. So, military medical personnel -- including
physicians -- are almost never punished under the UCMJ for acts of willful
negligence and for covering up gross malpractice. And, as in the illegal DoD
anthrax vaccine program, there will be an orchestrated cover-up of "bad
news" -- including deaths and serious adverse reactions to vaccines and
drugs used to "save" America from an avian flu epidemic. The bad news will
be hidden by the Pentagon involving the HIPPA Act and Privacy Act -- just as
they have in order to hide anthrax vaccine deaths and illnesses.
Associated Press Writer
President Bush, increasingly concerned about a possible avian flu pandemic,
revealed Tuesday that any part of the country where the virus breaks out
could likely be quarantined and that he is considering using the military to
enforce it.
"The best way to deal with a pandemic is to isolate it and keep it isolated
in the region in which it begins," he said during a wide- ranging Rose
Garden news conference.
The president was asked if his recent talk of giving the military the lead
in responding to large natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and other
catastrophes was in part the result of his concerns that state and local
personnel aren't up to the task of a flu outbreak.
"Yes," he replied.
After the bungled initial federal response to Katrina, Bush suggested
putting the Pentagon in charge of search-and-rescue efforts in times of a
major terrorist attack or similarly catastrophic natural disaster. He has
argued that the armed forces have the ability to quickly mobilize the
equipment, manpower and communications capabilities needed in times of
crisis.
But such a shift could require a change in law, and some in Congress and the
states worry it would increase the power of the federal government at the
expense of local control.
Bush made clear that the potential for an outbreak of avian flu is much on
his mind, and has him talking with "as many (world) leaders as I could find"
and reading a book on the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic that killed 40 million
and consulting staff and experts.
"I have thought through the scenarios of what an avian flu outbreak could
mean," he said.
He acknowledged that a quarantine _ an idea sure to alarm many in the public
_ is no small thing for the government to undertake and that enforcing it
would be tricky.
"It's one thing to shut down airplanes," Bush said. "It's another thing to
prevent people from coming in to get exposed to the avian flu."
He urged Congress to give him the ability to use the military, if needed.
"I think the president ought to have all ... assets on the table to be able
to deal with something this significant," he said.
Bush also said he has been urging world leaders to improve reporting on
outbreaks of the virus, and exploring how to speed the production of a
spray, now in limited supply, that "can maybe help arrest the spread of the
disease."
"One of the issues is how do we encourage the manufacturing capacity of the
country, and maybe the world, to be prepared to deal with the outbreak of a
pandemic?" he said.
Experts agree there will certainly be another flu pandemic _ a new human flu
strain that goes global. However, it is unknown when or how bad that global
epidemic will be _ or whether the H5N1 bird flu strain now circulating in
Asian poultry will be its origin.
Just in case, experts are tracking the avian flu, which has swept through
poultry populations in large swaths of Asia since 2003, jumped to humans and
killed at least 65 people.
Most human cases have been linked to a contact with sick birds, but the
World Health Organization has warned the virus could mutate into a form that
spreads easily among humans _ changing it from a bird virus to a human
pandemic flu strain.
Commentary:
For those of you with whom I have used the term Bio-Fascism in desribing the
merging of the (1) military medical establishment, (2) public health
bureaucracies, to include the ostensible federal regulator FDA, and (3) the
Pharmas, Mr. Bush's remarks on Oct 4th are the latest indication of the
nations' insidious slide toward Orwellian State-sponsored mandatory
vaccinations.
What will American citizens do when nurses, accompanied by armed police and
soldiers, come to the door and order them to be vaccinated? Since 9/11,
Federal and State laws have been changed to now allow for this. The American
people do not understand that the bioterrorism authorities passed by
Congress since 9/11 make the USA Patriot Act look tame by comparison.
Mandatory vaccination under an emergency declaration can be based simply on
a "potential" threat from bioterrorism using the same type of
politically-motivated "intelligence" as that used to justify the Iraq War.
This emergency authority, under the BioShield Act, was exercised on Dec 10,
2004 by former Deputy Secretary of Defense Wolfowitz, who used a baseless
assertion of an anthrax "threat" to resume anthrax vaccinations in the
military. Former HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson complied with Wolfowitz'
request for an emergency declaration on Jan 14, 2005 -- the week before he
left government to head a biodefense company.
Already, the Pentagon is demanding that anthrax vaccine refusers who are
awaiting appeal of the illegal order to take the vaccine submit DNA samples
that are to be placed in the FBI's national database of criminals. This is
the de facto criminalization of vaccine refusal, and because of emergency
authorities enacted in the 2004 Project BioShield Act, ALL American
civilians can also be subjected to the same erosion in civil rights.
Further, if the Pentagon is allowed to take over in a flu pandemic, the
"mission" will override any considerations of Constitutional rights. The
illegal DoD anthrax vaccine program -- which for six years was enforced with
courts-martial and jailings of refusers until it was stopped by a federal
judge -- will become the template for accomplishing this "mission". And
Science that does not support the "mission" of saving America will be
suppressed, just as it has with the illegal DoD anthrax vaccine program.
Such a Pentagon-run program will be administered by the ethically corrupt
military medical establishment, which is not subjected to the same ethical
standards as the soldiers punished for the crimes at Abu Ghraib.
There is no accountability, because soldiers cannot sue the Pentagon for
medical malpractice. So, military medical personnel -- including
physicians -- are almost never punished under the UCMJ for acts of willful
negligence and for covering up gross malpractice. And, as in the illegal DoD
anthrax vaccine program, there will be an orchestrated cover-up of "bad
news" -- including deaths and serious adverse reactions to vaccines and
drugs used to "save" America from an avian flu epidemic. The bad news will
be hidden by the Pentagon involving the HIPPA Act and Privacy Act -- just as
they have in order to hide anthrax vaccine deaths and illnesses.
