I don’t really know where to begin. I will try and keep my comments to a mim as I write out the notes. I would like to state for the record though, If this is the best they have to offer us we are all screwed!
This conference was given by the midatlantic employers assoc. It was supposed to be skewed towards getting your business ready. The presenter was a rep from the Montgomery County PA Dept of Health. It was entitled “Pandemic and Hazard Planning: Preparing for the Avian Flu. Her name was Jackie (was really cute which dident make it any easier to confront her) she works in the environmental field services. I later learned this means she inspects restaurants. Apparently she is part of a three person team that is giving lectures on this. The other two members were giving the presentation to TPTB at the same time. (Ill get back to this) Mongemery county has formed a pandemic community of the DOH and public safety and are looking at this as an all hazards approach. They want to be prepared for a hurricane, power outage, blizzard pandemic etc. She started by saying that the media creates much hype and fear and that the job of the DOH was to calm the public.
She started off with some basic bio that was surprisingly incorrect. She told the diff between bac and viruses and then said that antibiotics is fungus directly and that viruses can not survive outside your body. WOW
Next was there will be no vaccine until it mutates and that the one that does exist is only for birds. She went over the different combinations of H and N and stressed that it is only a bird virus. She went over the dates and casualty figures of the past pandemics along with the attention getting facts of more deaths than all the wars.
She made a huge deal about saying NO person to person which she later went back and said rarely person to person. She had the correct current WHO health numbers of 244 and 143 deaths. Surprisingly had correct CFR and alluded to this is what they are planning for and opposed to the common 2.5%. Editing this I remembered that someone brought up the first cluster but she brushed it off like it was nothing.
Someone asked if it was in other animals and she said some cats. Now keep in mind its early on in the presentation and it was all I could do not to lay into her.
She went over the symptoms of AF and stressed viral pneumonia and drowning in your own fluids. She referenced the bird flu movie and said the bleeding from the eyes was more of a horror movie than reality.
One of my fav quotes of the day… “We are too organized for bird flu to ever happen.”
Reiterated it would be months after the virus mutates that there would be any vaccine because it would have to be tested.
USDA is testing migratory birds as an early warning. The woman beside me says her husband works for the surgeon general and they are specifically looking at Ohio and California because they are the main poultry producers. The speaker seemed annoyed at being interrupted, I was thinking this is going to get good when I start.
She brought up LPAF found in a goose in Michigan? (I missed where) and said it is no concern because it is LP and not HP.
Talked about Tamiflu and that PA has a stockpile(ing) of it. Someone brought up shelf life and I guess she didn’t know the answer and tossed it off to there are other options such as SIP.
Next she brings up quarantine ever so briefly and mentions they would use state police and military to enforce. I ask are you telling me your planning on using a forced quarantine? Or am I confused and your trying to do a voluntary quarantine. She said the govt would make that decision. Someone blurted out its a states decision and I said “wait, who in govt? Which agency or like just the govt as a whole?” She replied “govt.” She seemed to have no idea of the chain of command.
She gets back on tract talking about treatment and said the tamiflu they did have would go to the sick and the people treating them. She brings up KI apparently they were involved with distributing it in the neighboring area that has a nuclear plant and she was all proud that they used drive throughs. She said the other health depts laughed at them until they saw how well it worked. I resisted the urge to argue with her and say people will not be calm like that, imagine if there had just been a nuclear accident thats the type of panic your going to be dealing with. Grrr She said they would use this setup for tamiflu dist and vaccine dist. Said the CDC told them to set up points of distribution like above, one for every 20K residents and requiring a staff of 50–150 per point. She says “Our health dept has 120 employees and there are 280K people in this county. “We do not have the manpower it would take to do this.” Offered no idea as to what they are going to do. Said that counties will be on their own with no help from neighboring counties and that they will be running test runs at some point.
She brings up hospitals and surge cap. Says they have not talked to the hospitals and are just getting started. She said they are considering using the abandoned state hospital and abandoned schools as overflow points, but was aware of the problem of where do all the supplies come from. But offered no solution.
Next was what are they doing as a health dept. She said they dont really even have the staff or manpower to really educate the public so they have made 5 DVD’s for distribution. These will be finished by mid OCT. :1,general public 2,schools and colleges 3,buisnesses 4,medical and health care 5,first responders. Since she brought up schools I asked are they in contact with the schools and are they planning on closing them. She said that would be a high level govt decision. I asked “your not in contact with superintendents, you mean to tell me when the kids are dropping dead they will keep the schools open?” People actually giggled! She had no idea…She said they haven’t even figured out how to distribute the DVD’s yet, they are thinking of maybe running them on public access TV. (wow am I ever glad I bought my tote-bag from the public access channel to keep it on the air!)
Next was what will business need to do to be prepared. She said the most important thing was that everyone be prepped at home as the first priority. She handed out a pamphlet on disaster/weather emergency readiness that had nothing to do with AF. Its a basic list of what to have on hand and what the terror codes mean etc. Not really helpful. I am looking at the food list to see amounts listed and find it says 3 days worth of water. So now I am getting annoyed. I interrupt her and say I see here it says only 3 days worth of water and I know the govt is saying 2 weeks. Why are you saying so little when the reality is that you are looking at several months and depending on how bad it gets a year or more. She said the health dept has refused to say more than 10 days. She actually argued with me over the time for SIP. I pointed out the last pandemics lasted for months and years. Her answer to this was we have better communication today than we did back then. So I said then why not just say 3 months? I tell the room you need 3 months worth of food and water or a way to make it drinkable and first aid. She says well we are HOPEING IT WONT HAPPEN. (All I can see in my mind is that Katrina picture with “hope is not a plan” spray painted on the side of a sunken house) At this point the woman in charge says lets keep this business focused so I backed down.
They handed out the CDC planing guide and said you have to determine who your critical workers are. Have people cross trained and consider telecommuting. Said you have to think about just in time delivery, chain of suppliers, and will banks be open. Her suggestion was to call up retired people to come in and do the jobs. (does any thought go into these ideas at all or what!?) Said you have to allow for a greater sick leave and have that as policy. Her great suggestion was you avoid handshakes and kissing in the workplace. (damn and I just got that hot new secretary)
I made a random note that she keeps bringing up SARS and what they learned from that.
Someone asked what will the time frame be when this happens. She refuses to say and gives a fluff answer. I blurt out it could be as little as a day with international air travel and she goes that’s why its so important to be prepped. (fair enough)
Brings up the regular flu vaccine and at first I though ok that’s a good idea as it could prevent a co-infection but she goes “it might just give you the boost you need to get over the flu.” Followed up with “but the regular flu vaccine wont protect you from the flu.” (Grrr) She keeps putting a big emphasis on sick time and maybe different shifts. (Apparently the DOH thinks everyone is coming to work with a 60%CFR.)
She was really stuck on birds being the vector and I dont think she really understood that birds wont matter once it jumps species.
Someone asks if they have posters and she said the CDC has all that. She went over generic flu advice about tissues and sneezing etc.
At one point I almost laughed out loud she actually said “lets be honest.”
She finished with a huge focus on hand washing.
Woman in charge says any questions or comments? I say I have a comment everyone seems to perk up “I am a biochemist and microbiologist and I work with an online think tank of experts, fluwikie.com and this was a lovely but sugarcoated presentation of AF. (I looked at the presenter and she was less than pleased lol) You owe it to yourself to check out this site as it goes way beyond today and discusses food and power and water and health care. Everyone asked me to repeat the site several times. (Hello new people!)
At the end I went up to the girl because I really felt bad about calling her out on a bunch of stuff. I asked if she has anything directly to do with the decision making and she says no. I asked who would that be and I get the name of the bioterrorism task force leader and a Dr. the medical director. I told her I came here to see what had filtered down to the local level and asked her are they in contact with the utilities and she said they are and the police and fire. I asked if we could get a representative in the next meeting they are having and she said prob yes but I would have to contact the bio-terrorism guy. (I will of course.) These are the two people giving the speech to TPTB
I dident ask her any more questions as it seemed she dident know much and I had quite rattled her already. Annoyed Max at his finest! She did mention that the bio-terrorism guy is ex military and is prepped for 2–3 months.
Ok my first question is…Anyone else want to go to the meeting with the real people or I am nominated? This was very enlightening for me and not in a good way. I am even more concerned as my actual county has done nothing that I could find, they are next on my hit list. I wonder if the counties are working together? Prob not…
I now have the same visceral reaction Goju had. I wanted to hind in the shadows and just give advice and be annoyed lol. But after seeing the potential mess, I have to do something. I am really looking forward to comments on this conference. I guess next I’ll call this guy and see where that gets me.
Thank you Max for the report.. please do keep up the good work
H5N1 is rolling on the floor laughing. “Such easy marks, and we get to take down their civilization, too!”.
WOW, way to go. Your actions will hopefully save lives. I’m going to a meeting tonight. I have a feeling I’m going to hear the same thing.
Epidemiologists say: Thin out sick Chickens.
Virus says: Thin out stupid people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks again Racter (March 2006)
Max. Congratulations…you’re the man…and thanks for the warning…I will have to put myself in a trance before I go to one of these meetings!!
I love seeing new titles on the shelf! “Annoyed Max Goes to the Montgomery PA DOH Conference”
This reviewer thinks it should have been titled,
“Annoyed Max is the Best Thing That Could Have Happened to the Attendees at the Montgomery PA DOH Conference!”
We’d all better get out there asking and answering questions more; no other way the lid’s going to get off this so it is pre-event disaster mitigation instead of blindsided catastrophe reaction during a pandemic year.
tjclaw1,
Take some flyers with the fluwikie.com address with you to hand out!
Annoyed Max, Thanks for taking the time to attend and for asking the tough questions. We need as many people as possible to attend these conferences and to hold TPTB accountable. To say the least, I found your account of this conference disturbing. How could they be so clueless?
Yes, I forgot to say thanks, Max! GREAT job, wish we could have been a fly on the wall!
And the main take-away from this is…
“… and that the job of the DOH was to calm the public.”
I can’t get out of my mind what would have happened if there had been 6–10 of “us” in the audience! Annoyed Max rattled her, with that many of “us” to “educate” her, she would have been speechless! LOL
I think flyer’s or business cards is an excellent idea. I wish I had something to give out to everyone. Although from the way I confronted her everyone seemed to listen when I said the web address.
Annoyed Max- Not mad yet – at 13:16
I think flyer’s or business cards is an excellent idea. I wish I had something to give out to everyone. Although from the way I confronted her everyone seemed to listen when I said the web address.
—
See the pandemic awareness week thread, as well as the red ribbon campaign thread.
That program would suit the purpose well.
What about the tri-fold flyer, or the two-page handout, in the main Wiki under Personal Preparedness Guides? (Do they need any updating?) (Slow to load page for me right now, so, I can’t make a link -gotta get offline now, anyway.)
Business cards with all the good site links, and maybe, quotes from Leavitt, Osterholm, or Nabarro on the back; that’s what I’d like to hand out…
Thats pretty good, guess I should read all the postings eh? I would have liked to have handed that out.
Max, great job. I live next door in Bucks County, so I am sure they are on the same level of non preparedness. I have seen nothing on this anywhere in Bucks.
To the owners and monitors of Fluwiki, with these new people coming to look at us, this is why it is important that you keep the discussions within reasonalbe bounds as you have done. A few cracpot commnets can ruin the credibility of the site. Great job Max and administrators.
This points out an important challenge - while some info about AF is getting to people and at least some are prepping, much of what they are getting is incorrect. I am going to take a look in our area to see if there is anything coming up that I could attend and also to talk with doctor friends about anything they’ve heard. Since my campaign to get others to prep hasn’t gone anywhere (only had a few converts) it may be a better use of my time to convince TPTB to get their a$$e# in gear.
Thanks MAx - great job!
NJ Jeeper would you be willing to pool resources with me and maybe go as a team to one of these potential future meetings? Also anyone else in the Philly area I would appreciate help as well. It always looks better to go as a group than as the one lone crazy scientist. This was not my home base community either I just work in the area so it was convenient. But I suspect all the local health depts are just as lost. I am really interested to know if the speech given to TPTB was any better than what I heard.
Applause, applause!! Thank you for not only attending and doing your best to awaken the other attendees, but also for your great report. This info will be so helpful if we are able to participate in such a meeting. There seems to be such a divergence in the cost, which can be a huge issue. Either its free or it costs $300!
When I spoke to our local DOH about bird flu several months ago when asking about the pneumonia vaccine, they simply laughed and said that [in effect] I ought not to worry my pretty little head about it since it was only in birds! This was AFTER the Karo cluster. If they are still holding onto that position, this area will not likely have a public meeting.
correction regarding cost of meetings. I just read the whole thread listing the various meetings and see that there is a wide divergency of costs. Guess the one’s I had been interested in were those that turned out to be at the high end of the range.
Is anyone on here from a health department that could advise us in which way to direct our questioning? For example how do we request the type of meeting we are looking to have. Who is the best person in the organization to contact and what do we say to them. Is saying I represent a think tank about avian flu and would like a meeting with these depts. Are they willing to set that up? If we drop nebarros name and various organization, would that help any? I would love some direction before I start making calls and screw something up by not talking to the right person.
Great job Max - note taking is so important. At least at the conference I went to they had many facts striaght. It is dangerous for uninformed people running these things - but there are so few of us willing to stand up and say what we know. There is such fear of being made fun of, being called nuts, or people pegging us as easy marks for supplies when TSHTF.
People - everyone of us can run these meetings. Just remember they are right about one thing - be prepared… not scared.
Thats one of my main concerns, if I come out of the closet (wow never thought I would write that) local people will know who I am and potentially where I will be during a pandemic. I guess I should gently stress that I would not be an easy target. I wish there was a way to have meetings and still remain anonymous.
Goju I deff agree, I could have stood there and talked non stop for an hour and a half no prob. Plus the speaker talked very slow and was trying to be funny I guess. I agree anyone thats been a regular here for a bit could easily host a meeting.
you cannot do that Max - go to your local gov. talk with them. Dont tell them their job. Tell them you want to save lives and you fear for yours. do a prep event in partnership with your local market - take a table and put out what 1 week looks like for food, water and toilet paper etc for 1 person. lots of stuff will be bought - everyone wins. Do not alarm. You can do it - you will be a hero. Those who cause trouble you will deal with. Most likely this virus is going to get us so what do u have to lose? yuckie isn’t it?
yeah good times…..
I’m havin a hard time here. I can’t for the life of me figure out why the Government doesn’t tell people what could be coming and what could very possibly happen. Why don’t they want people to be a little smarter and be prepared to face whatever comes down the pike. All in all it seems to me that the Government doesn’t care if we die or if we live. we are on our own. good thing we all have each other for support causes the PTB aren’t helping anywhere or careing. We keep hearing they have a plan but we never see one. I think I’ll believe it when I see it. as I said…….think we’re on our own on this one. But damn I wish someone would prove me wrong. yup
The Sarge is very annoyed, and getting very mad.
This biggest bunch of potentially lethal silliness that I am seeing is in the figures that are being used in planning assumptions. Since they seem to be consistent across different states, I believe they came from a ‘higher-up’ source, i.e. the CDC. IMHO, this belies the notion that the CDC is approaching the problem with any degree of seriousness.
The figures go something like this:
25–30% of the population gets infected. Half of these (13–15%) need some form of medical treatment. 2–2.5% of those needing medical treatment need hospitalization. 0.5% fatality rate among clinical cases (Yes, that’s one half of one percent)
This yields an increase in overall mortality during the height of the pandemic of something between 30 and 60 percent on a weekly basis (assuming a wave of 6–12 weeks duration) or 6–7% on an annual basis (assuming a wave of 6–12 weeks duration).
In other words, you have less than a 1 in 7 chance of being sick enough to call your doctor. You have less than a 1 in 40 chance of actually having to go to the hospital. You a 1:1384 chance of dying from The Bug, and only 1:175 if you actually catch it.
Consider now that the current H5N1 CFR ranges between 58 and 80 %, depending on what span of time and what area you study. Does anyone think that a) the planning figures are based on anything but wishful thinking and, b) a realistic and appropriately urgent picture is being presented to communities for them to base their planning?
BTW - Great job Max! Gotta keep their feet to the flames lest they get too comfortable with their foolish assumptions. Keep up the good work!
It is deja vu all over again - hands up anyone who has attended a conference, seminar or presentation on BF and not heard the same cr*p as described above?
These ‘well intended’ presenters are dependent on official sources for their data - imagine if they started presenting from hunches - whoa!
Just an idea, how many of you have the wiki site as part of your signature on your emails? If you were sending this out every time you sent an email, imagine the curiosity factor you might arouse?
Well done Mad Max - just keep at it
Max - Please e-mail me (see profiles) Perhaps I could be a “shill” in the audeince, <and then Eccles stands up to ask additional questions….>
I wonder if there is/would be a correlation between a) the cost to attend a presentation meeting and b) the quality and accuracy of advice and information being given?
Seems like Goju, who attened a conference aimed at businessfolks who had to shell out some hard cash, got informatino that at least was sobering; while Annoyed Max attended a more general, presumably free to the public, conference, aimed at reassuring the masses?
Just a thought….I’m not suggesting any actual attempt to misinform, just that you get what you pay for.
Hello! I am in Cumberland County (central PA) across the river from Harrisburg. I’m working (voluntarily) with our County Emergency Services director on public awareness & My sis-in-law is in BUcks COunty and has been attempting to work w/ their Health Dept. She has also been attempting to work w/ Southampton Twp. It’s a long uphill battle. We both attended one of the state summits that was the off-shoot of the State summit attended by Leavitt. The one we attended was in Valley Forge, which would have covered Montgomery County. There were over 650 people there. Both sis-in-law & I came away as frustrated as you and that one was staged by the PA DEpt. of HEalth. The stressed theme was to look at the plans as an “All Hazards Plan’, but they will stress Pandemic Flu. They want to have all counties (in PA) organize under ‘One Voice’. Which means that they want all info to come from the Dept. of Health. The Dept. of Health is of NO help to our county (who does NOT have a County Health Dept.) After I made several attempts to them, they finally called me back and said that any calls that will originate from our county getting the word out to it’s residents will be directed to a 1–877# for general answers! (So, if you are in PA and don’t have a county health dept … good luck!) they also stressed that is this was NOT currently a human flu. They gave out little to NO suggestions as to how to go back to individual counties and get the word out to their residents. I specifically attended the Public Communications Planning session to get that type of info. and was sorely disappointed. Hence the very poor presentation that you recieved for Montgomery county. Those that are following forums such as this as the BEST …. absolutely the BEST informed and prepared. We have to be the leaders in community preparation. TPTB are NOT! I would like to get more information from you regarding the ‘next meeting’. I’m sure that my sis-in-law would also be interested. It’s only a couple of hours away from me and will be worth the trip. -k
sorry — typo: that was supposed to read ‘are the best’
Mad Max - Thanks for your summary, you did a great job.
I was at the meeting with the presenters to TPTB concerning the Montco Pandemic Plan and to be quite frankly, it wasn’t much better. The meeting started with a description of the plans associated with National Preparedness Month. Apparently Philadelphia has taken the lead in planning and invited 11 surrounding counties in PA and NJ to join in. (James Witt, former FEMA Director has been Philadelphia’s advisor) They referenced readyregion.org as a site for information, but when I went to it it is under construction. They also referenced readymontco.montcopa.org and that site is up and does at least give the county’s approved pandemic plan, but little to help the common citizen plan.
All of the things you noted, three days food, plenty of notification time, planned distribution locations, etc., were all mentioned. The three days food suggestion was corrected upon questioning, but noone would suggest that two months was necessary. The Health Department along with the senior citizen volunteers will be at the grocery stores touting a four day emergency supply of food for 2 people that will be for sale for $27.00 for the next month at Acme and possibly Genaurdis. Suggestion was made for the need to get a 2 week supply of prescription medication even if you have to pay for it. (It was later stated that these plans were for other types of disasters, not the pandemic - but that was made clear only after questioning!)
It was clear that the level of understanding concerning the possibilities was very low or a lot was being hidden so as to not scare people. In fact when the issue of using schools to dissenminate information was raised, concerns were voiced from the audience about scaring the children. There needs to be a lot of education of TPTB in our fair county or the results will be what most of us fear.
CAPmom/Readymom – at 18:04 I too live in Bucks County and near Southampton township. I see nothing in the news.
Yet I fear becoming known to the world. I do not want my name and address available when TSHTF.
And I know that anonmous names will not work. Maybe I should be a shill like Eccles and incite the leaders to action. Maybe some tomatoes and lettuce to toss. (Just Kidding!!!)
Anyway I will be in a Webinar for business people at the end of the mont, and will be loaded with facts and some probing questions.
This may be the way we have to get action, but putting the hear on without looking like kooks.
Can some churches get involved? I wonder if the government is even interested in thinking about this. Maybe getting the clergy together in a town is a more productive approach? Or the Chamber of Commerce? A study group of folks from a local hospital or university are likely to be better than the pablum being dished out by dishonest or ignorant communications “experts”.
“putting the heat on”, bad typo at 19:27
I tried approaching our senior center as our seniors are very involved with the local volunteer FD, etc. but was poo-pooed because I’m not an “expert.” But, next week I’m going to leave copies of my AF packet in the mail boxes of several board-of-ed members. They are one of the most powerful boards in town as it’s a very family-oriented community. most of them have chidren, and I figure if I can scare a few of them maybe some others will start doing some planning for our pathetic little town.
Thanks to Annoyed Max- Not mad yet for going to that conference. I think his presence at that meeting, and Goju’s at the NYC meeting, are great examples of community involvement. I have been trying to record as many local conferences as possible on the News thread. I notice other have been as well. The more of these we record, the better.
AnnieB does a wonderful job summarizing the news each morning. My suggestion is that we all check carefully for local panfluprep meetings that we can attend. One Fluwikian at one of these meetings can change the whole tone of the meeting and give us first-hand accounts of what message is being sent. I also like the idea of multiple Fluwikians showing up at these meetings when possible. I agree that if multiple members of an audience reiniforce key points, the audience is more likely to take the message seriously.
Annoyed Max- Not mad yet – at 15:08 I may be able to attend the next meeting with you. I am about an hour north of your location. My email is in my profile. Nice job. Sounds like the next meeting will be more illuminating about what the county is really capable of.
infomass - funnt you say that - today i visited the stop & shop manager where i want to do my prep event to take his pulse and get a direct contact to main headquarters.
The most interesting thing he said was that they get full delivery every 2 days - they sell everything out in 2 days! take that to your pantry why dontcha.
anyway - my next stop will be the Church (and i am jewish - go figure) and i will hit the chamber of commerec to get the local biz involved after the twon meeting. Followed by the town dentist (gotta keep those pearly whites in good shape) pediatrician ( treats every kid in town) and the Vet (oh my… preps include food for the dog? oh yea gotta fattem up so we can eat him when our gov endorsed 3 days of food runs out.)
enough sick humor. I’ve had a rough day. I wanted to send a video of the woodrow wilson meeting that took place last sept to the attendees of my meeting this weekend but i cant download it. maybe someone else can… it is 1 1/2 hrs of Dr. Osterholm and Helen Branswell talk about SARS, H5N1, Pandemic and 18 months blizzard - this was before old doc was muzzled. link here
Brunetti at 18:22 wrote - In fact when the issue of using schools to dissenminate information was raised, concerns were voiced from the audience about scaring the children.
We’ve heard that in Indonesia they are using the schools to help educate children and their families about bird flu. But here they don’t want to do that because of scaring the children? Methinks the real fear is in the adults. They don’t want to answer questions from children about bird flu, because that will force them to think more thoroughly about the issues!
I have wondered if this goes H2H, whether at least some people in countries like Indonesia might not fare better than people in America. They are used to surviving through tough situations. Boy, are we ever soft in America…softer than I even dreamed.
Annoyed Max- Not mad yet – Good job on the audience participation and holding it together during the PR items. I’m across the river from you in Camden county, and I’m due to have my shot at a conference at Kennedy Hospital on the 27th. Judging from your experience, I’ll be going in with a briefcase full of wiki link print-outs and a portable recorder so I can keep good notes. I also intend to bring in 3 runs of the “FluSurge” program using the data I have collected on local hospital capacity pushed to a wimpy 1968/1957 pandemic level, a 1918 level, and a present Indonesian level - and be sure I give the CDC notes with each. If you’d like, I can help you get the same information compiled for Bucks and Montgomery counties if you can do so work Googling up your census and hospital data. If that doesn’t get their attention, nothing is going to - and maybe we should begin combining resources to turn a big barge into a “Wiki Ark” houseboat to sip in around here.
While you were at your conference today I spent 6 hours in the ER at Virtua for the migraines I have been having for 6 days. My BP was NASA levels high as well. CT scan, X-ray, labs, and it is just a cluster migraine - totally debilitating when it happens, but survivable. It did afford me time to talk with 2 ER nurses and ask if they had gotten any instructions about H5N1 monitoring or protection. Neither had, with the exception of one memo on basic contamination mitigation in the last month. Both asked about Tamiflu. Neither had any idea about the hemorrhagic effects or the attack rate being higher in youngsters and young adults. Both got the wiki URL to look up more info. It was a teaching moment, even if I could barely tollerate candle light or loud whispers. I had to correct one of them when she told the other I was working with the CDC - instead of just using CDC software to chart the hospital surge capacity over-runs.
We have little time to get this population prepared if the front line forces are in the dark - and both these ladies were in my age bracket, so they were not fresh from college nursing school. I agree, the situation is pretty dire if this is the best we have to put up against this beast. You can email me at tray75atsingtomeohmusedotcom for information on finding data for the FluSurge software and more information. Thanks for giving us this insight.
Bump
I read “Annoyed Max Goes to the Montgomery PA DOH Conference” as Annoyed Max went to a D’Oh conference, a la Homer Simpson.
After reading AM’s experience there, I don’t think I need to change my reading glasses yet.
Thanks Texas Rose; I needed that laugh, such as it was.
INFOMASS – at 19:50, http://www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/faithcomchecklist.html There has been a to-do list from the feds “for religious organizations (churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, etc.), social service agencies that are faithbased, and community organizations in developing and improving influenza pandemic response and preparedness plans”…
I gave up on that, when the puzzled church asked, what did I want them to do with that information??
Someone with more clout, communication skills, community ties, tact, and patience, can certainly keep trying. (Goju, I *need* my teef!;-))
The Flu Wiki, and the US government, have had lists of things churches and community organizations should be getting together to discuss and take action on. (With local officials who are supposed to be including community “stakeholders” in their planning meetings.)
DOH! Add that to Osterholm’s two-word quote, on a t-shirt…
DOH! Add that to Osterholm’s two-word quote, on a t-shirt…
Cafe press does shirts pretty cheaply.
Putting the Pandemic Awareness card on a T-shirt might be a novel idea.
Goju at 21:55 - what an amazing conference. Thanks for putting that up there. I’d like to quote Helen Branswell’s quote of Dr. Webster:
“Of all the virii we’ve ever seen, this is the one that scares us sh!#/@$$.”
Worth it just for that.
I’m curious though — what were you referring to when you said “…before old doc was muzzled.” Is it because Dr. Webster was (I suspect) told to put a sock in it after he did that ABC interview when he said half the population could die? Or were you referring to something/someone else?
Dr Osterholm took a slight turn in the road shortly after this conference. In subsequent interviews, he focused more on prescription medicines, syringes, more medical supplies than food, water and power.
Was it my imagination or did Ms. Branswell have tears welling up as she spoke about how bad it could be?
This interview made the floor shake beneath my chair.