Commissioner says bird flu grant money is nonsense
By David Brommerich For the Winona Daily News
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The federal government is giving Buffalo County $7,200 to prepare for a possible bird flu pandemic, but one county supervisor wants no part of it.
The Buffalo County Board agreed to accept the grant and decide how to spend it. A resolution introduced by the county?s finance committee passed 14 to 1 last week with one supervisor absent.
Brach Seitz of Buffalo City, the lone member voting against the resolution, said the grant is nonsense.
?I don?t believe it will ever turn into a pandemic,? Seitz said. If it did, he said, the federal government would come in and take charge of it.
Most of the money ? $5,245 ? will be used to buy three laptop computers, a portable vaccine cooler, a digital camera, a couple of cell phones and a pocket computer. The other $2,000 will be used for staff training and planning for response to a pandemic.
?It?s a waste of federal tax dollars on items that aren?t going to be used for this,? Seitz said. ?It?s a scam.?
Though the flu strain H5N1 is a threat to birds, the current virus lacks the ability to spread from human to human, which is necessary for a pandemic. Since 2003, 230 humans worldwide have become ill with the virus, resulting in 132 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
The last domestic pandemic to inflict mass death was the ?Spanish Flu? of 1918, which killed an estimated 40 million people worldwide and 8,400 in Wisconsin. Buffalo County had 18 deaths in that epidemic, according to state health records.
Buffalo County Administrator Bruce Cornish said the grant money has to be spent by Aug. 30 or the federal government wants it back.
The county wasn?t told how much the grant would be until July 1 and then was told it had to make plans on how to use it by the end of July.
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By David Brommerich For the Winona Daily News
.
The federal government is giving Buffalo County $7,200 to prepare for a possible bird flu pandemic, but one county supervisor wants no part of it.
The Buffalo County Board agreed to accept the grant and decide how to spend it. A resolution introduced by the county?s finance committee passed 14 to 1 last week with one supervisor absent.
Brach Seitz of Buffalo City, the lone member voting against the resolution, said the grant is nonsense.
?I don?t believe it will ever turn into a pandemic,? Seitz said. If it did, he said, the federal government would come in and take charge of it.
Most of the money ? $5,245 ? will be used to buy three laptop computers, a portable vaccine cooler, a digital camera, a couple of cell phones and a pocket computer. The other $2,000 will be used for staff training and planning for response to a pandemic.
?It?s a waste of federal tax dollars on items that aren?t going to be used for this,? Seitz said. ?It?s a scam.?
Though the flu strain H5N1 is a threat to birds, the current virus lacks the ability to spread from human to human, which is necessary for a pandemic. Since 2003, 230 humans worldwide have become ill with the virus, resulting in 132 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
The last domestic pandemic to inflict mass death was the ?Spanish Flu? of 1918, which killed an estimated 40 million people worldwide and 8,400 in Wisconsin. Buffalo County had 18 deaths in that epidemic, according to state health records.
Buffalo County Administrator Bruce Cornish said the grant money has to be spent by Aug. 30 or the federal government wants it back.
The county wasn?t told how much the grant would be until July 1 and then was told it had to make plans on how to use it by the end of July.
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