USA. The White House - Press Office - President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology PCAST releases report assessing H1N1 preparations

[sharon sanders]

Re: USA. The White House - Press Office - President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology PCAST releases report assessing H1N1 preparations

Thanks for the analysis.

I think for me the take away message is that we need to be prepared for ourselves.

The government is only a framework for action.

We must take the action for ourselves.


Wash Hands Video -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3boxQwSpv-8&feature=related


How to Sneeze in Public -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wju7F5ytk6M


Use Facemasks if Available -

http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/masks.htm


Interim Guidance for Swine influenza A (H1N1): Taking Care of a Sick Person in Your Home -

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100589


Manual for Treating Influenza at Home pdf


Oral Rehydration fluid Recipe


Basic 30 Day Prep list


Survival Technique - Flu Buddies!

 

[Niko]

Re: USA. The White House - Press Office - President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology PCAST releases report assessing H1N1 preparations

You know, the US federal government lives and works in a fish bowl. There's not a lot they do that doesn't see the light of day.

It is prudent for all of us to reflect on our level of preparations as we enter what will likely be a really nasty flu season. And the more objective that review is, the better. And that is what this President asked PCAST to do. A very proactive and smart thing in my view.

Having said that, we now have a reaction to their findings, some of which findings were positive, some negative, some quite frankly ambiquous, even contradictory. But the findings in this report will likely assist those agencies who do have the ultimate responsibility for getting this nation prepared. No one has all the answers. This is new ground we plow. We don't have decades of skill set development for the best way to handle influenza pandemics. And I think we are all seeing that in how this is playing out real time and in the open.

What we perhaps need, however, is one voice. Having an incident command structure in place is usually very helpful when dealing with disasters and emergencies. And such structures typically have one name at the top of the list that is responsible for response activities. It can be PCAST, HHS, Homeland Security, CDC or the President himself.

The President will probably delegate this to one of the others, leaving a council of experts, a politician's politician, an attorney/politician, or the doctor/politician as the choice. When all's said and done, it may not really matter which is chosen, because all are likely to work together to come up with the final solutions, directives, and guidance, but having all of these folks offer opinions right now, is not necessarily helpful to the general public. I bet a single strong voice would do wonders to ease some of the concern.

I nominate Craig Fugate - just read this article a few days ago...

snipped from In Case of Emergency


?We need to change behavior in this country,? he told about 400 emergency-management instructors at a conference in June, lambasting the ?government-centric? approach to disasters. He learned a perverse lesson in Florida: the more the federal government does in routine emergencies, the greater the odds of catastrophic failure in a big disaster. ?It?s like a Chinese finger trap,? he told me last spring, as a hailstorm fittingly raged outside his office. If the feds do more, the public, along with state and local officials, do less. They come to expect ice and water in 24 hours and full reimbursement for sodden carpets. But as part of a federal system, FEMA is designed to defer to state and local officials. If another Katrina hits, and the locals are overwhelmed, a full-strength federal response will inevitably take time. People who need help the most?the elderly, the disabled, and the poor?may not get it fast enough.

To avoid ?system collapse,? as he puts it, Fugate insists that the government must draft the public. ?We tend to look at the public as a liability. [But] who is going to be the fastest responder when your house falls on your head? Your neighbor.? A few years ago, Fugate dropped the word victim from his vocabulary. ?You?re not going to hear me refer to people as victims unless we?ve lost ?em. I call them survivors.? He criticizes the media for ?celebrating? people who choose not to evacuate and then have to be rescued on live TV?while ignoring all the people who were prepared. ?This is a tragedy, this whole Shakespearean circle we?re in. You never hear the media say, ?Hey, you?re putting this rescue worker in danger.??

At his first all-staff meeting with FEMA employees, Fugate asked for a show of hands: ?How many people here have your family disaster plan ready to go? [If you don?t], you just failed your first test ? If you?re going to be an emergency manager, the first place you start is at home.? Already, Fugate is factoring citizens into the agency?s models for catastrophic planning, thinking of them as rescuers and responders, not just victims. And he has changed FEMA?s mission statement from the old, paternalistic (and fantastical) vow to ?protect the Nation from all hazards? to a more modest, collaborative pledge to ?support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together.?

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: USA. The White House - Press Office - President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology PCAST releases report assessing H1N1 preparations

I second your motion.

He speaks my language - that's the way things get done in rural Alaska.

.

 

[Hogweed]

Re: USA. The White House - Press Office - President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology PCAST releases report assessing H1N1 preparations

That's an old story from September 2nd. It is not current. I do not know why it is published as new.