Swine Flu Emergency - Or Not

The new swine flu: sounds scary. But what is the reality?

A few dozen people have died in Mexico, and there are some documented cases in other countries. What are we NOT seeing: rapid contagion; an exponentially growing number of fatalities; contagion affecting medical care professionals. SARS was frightening in its lethal spread. So far we are not seeing this with the new swine flu outbreak.

We need to keep on top of the fear mongering potential of this issue. There are real public health threats, which we can discuss as professionals/people interested in public policy; however they overlap with those who would take medium size threats and turn them into opportunities to make money and consolidate power.

Cui bono in each case. I followed the avian flu thing closely and was inside enough to see how that became a money making opportunity.

Whatever this new thing is, is real. It will kill some people. It deserves appropriate attention and resources.

But something like 36,000 people in the U.S. die from regular flu every year; I don't hear a lot of screaming about that, except the one year Rumsfeld's Tamiflu folks tried to manufacture a shortage of vaccine. And don't get me started about other preventable deaths, here and abroad....

So yeah, I am afraid, just not of what you might think:

My television interview suit

Prepared a bag of clothes for goodwill today and delivered them. Mostly I felt ok about this.... Sometimes I need to keep things for a long time to make sure I am really finished with them. With ADHD I love to start projects but have difficulty understanding when things are finished.

My purple and black suit was from the mid 80s when I was a young mom serving as president of our town's board of health. I wore it to a Massachusetts Department of Public Health hearing on sulfur dioxide additives in food, which was covered by all 3 local affiliate channels - NBC, ABC, and CBS. I knew as I was speaking the exact sound bite that would be the 20 second news segment, and was thrilled that this made all 3 networks.

We tend to romanticize the good old days, and I look back fondly at this moment when I theoretically had it all together. And professionally that is probably a high point, not equaled again until my work in Russia and then again at Firedoglake during the election. But this fuzzy memory glosses over other things going on in my life, everything was not golden.

I closed myself off from people and did not have the friend/colleague network that is such a vital part of my life now. I faced challenges with my intelligent and willful children and my brilliant but emotionally distant husband. It was difficult for me to ask for the help and support that I needed professionally and personally. Slow learner!

So decades later I very reluctantly add this gorgeous suit to the pile of clothes to give to charity, where they will find greater use than filling up closet space here. But this was a hard one. That moment where I spoke at the hearing which was then televised, as both a public health professional and as a person who was affected by sulfite, was truly a high point. A representative from the FDA was there, and shortly after there were federal changes in sulfite regulation. Sometimes you hit it just right. I like to think that project selection is one of my great strengths. My projects don't always make me happy, but at the end of my life I will be able to tell God I did the best I could, truly. And that is not so easy, from whom much is given, much is expected.

In giving away this suit, I honor that moment while making room for what new things are coming in my life.

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photo - not me - taken by andrew feinberg

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New Flag: Don't Cough On Me

crossposted at firedoglake 6 january 2008

graphic by twolf

Snakes TB on planes: another excuse to restrict our civil liberties? You heard it here first.

The Department of Homeland Insecurity, always keen to abuse your tax dollars to scare you into submission, will be thrilled with Tuesday's story from the AP's Paul Elias:

Health officials were searching Monday for dozens of airline passengers who may have come in contact with a 30-year-old woman infected with a hard-to-treat form of tuberculosis on a flight from India.

"She did have symptoms on the flight," said Santa Clara County Health Director Dr. Marty Fenstersheib. "She was coughing."

This is great! I mean this is great if you're a winger politician. Now you can scaremonger your way to higher office by claiming that those illegal immigrants are endangering your families once again. Oh no---they're taking away your jobs AND they're giving you germs.

Since TSA clearly doesn't already have enough information to "protect" us, in the way that a local thug will offer to "protect" your car for a fee, they will insist that Congress permit our electronic medical records to be available for review to look for scary terrorists, now defined as anyone with a cough.

Of course they would always use any controversial medical information they learn about you very discreetly. I trust them, don't you?

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Republicans Stall While Children Drown

crossposted at firedoglake 4 december 2007


I've got yer family values right here:

Republican Senator Tom Coburn is holding up legislation that would help prevent children from drowning in pool drain accidents.

Thirty-two children drowned and another hundred were seriously injured---by drain suction pulling out their intestines or trapping a limb---between 1985 and 2004 according to the Washington Post. John Edwards had a well-known case involving this kind of injury.

Legislation to require inexpensive raised drain covers was all set to pass when Sen. Coburn [a physician!] decided we couldn't afford the $7 million---spread over the next five years---so he put a hold on it. Gee this is what, about 10 minutes of the cost of the mess in Iraq?

Sponsor Debbie Wasserman Schultz explains it actually *saves* money overall:

...in the long run the bill would probably save taxpayer dollars by preventing fatalities and costly injuries such as brain damage caused by near-drownings.

I'll tell you what we can't afford, is a Congress that won't take care of American citizens. Demand better: Stop killing Iraqis, start saving children's lives. Now was that so hard?

P.S. Feeling like Colombo here, just one more thing...Harry Reid, how come when a Republican puts a hold on legislation, that's honored, while Sen. Dodd's hold is ignored? Just askin'.

photoshop by twolf1

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People will help you

If you hear a loud wailing noise, that's probably the echo of me screaming about evil computers. I have spent the day and the better part of my patience trying to download some new virus protection software. As a public health person the concept of virus protection appeals to me in principle.

The frustration is my ignorance and my lack of patience. Trying to be a good little Jedi Knight.

And several people have tried to help me including the people at the aforementioned software site. [Shez...you're on my list for tomorrow if I can't get make this work.]

I have tried to be open about what I don't know, in order to learn. That's gotta be a good thing, right? And people have been very generous with their time and patience trying to lead me step by step in order to meet my goals.

Interrupted this vain pursuit to go to the bank and wire several thousand dollars to Russia for our children's hospital. This lovely bank once RE-OPENED THE NATIONAL WIRE TRANSFER CAPABILITY because they had made a mistake and I urgently needed funds to get to Russia. Talk about service. People will help you if they know -why- it's important.

Am trying to be philosophical and view conquering difficulties as one of my gifts to the children of Russia. Sometimes this works. The problem one encounters is not simply what's blocking one's destined path; it becomes the next step in one's path. Or so I can think when I'm not screaming.

I am giving more thought to the process of shoving obstacles out of the way. I imagine egDau the younger pushing those giant sets off stage in between acts of the play.

In Dr. Gridlock [great name for a traffic column] today in the W.Post he talks about removing traffic obstacles, one at a time. This is my philsophy in general, One Catastrophe at a Time.

In principle, this works. In practice, it leaves me screaming with frustration. Rather like Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut's concept: In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.

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