I met with the Emergency Manager of our Town last night regarding my helping with public awareness. It was a very dull conversation as he listened to what I had to say. I did have a copy of our old emergency medical plan but not the new one as that one cannot be given to me for some reason (national security!).
When I had looked at the old one there were so many things that were not being addressed. I made my concerns known at the time (a few months ago). The Health Officer was in charge and Emergency Management did not have a copy of the health officers plan so I went higher up on the chain and inquired about it which pretty much blacklisted me from speaking to anyone about anything after that.
So back to my meeting, the Emergency Manager said “we” feel that we have given you the information and yet you are not satisfied with that.” I said you are correct and I would like to help. He said we have experts here who are working on it.
That was it – end of meeting!
No tamiflu or vaccine for me and mine!
we have given you the information and yet you are not satisfied with that
we have experts here who are working on it
An Emergency Manager knows about normal emergencies, and so it should be (historically, at least).
I’d go ask someone else, really.
“we have experts here who are working on it”
Well, since they obviously aren’t keeping up with current news, nor scientists, or they would have clearly told the public to stock up for months, not days, looks like “experts” “plan to fail the public” and say, we had no idea it could be that bad,
(and wave the old fluAid spreadsheets, and decry anyone for finger-pointing and blame when all they are trying to do is lead the recovery effort so martial law can be stood down…)
“No tamiflu or vaccine for me and mine! “ Don’t worry Birdie; didn’t think after the pharma people, military, the VIP politicians, and hopefully nurses, firefighters, all the first responders, power grid workers, bring-out-your-dead-cart people; it will have run out long before you and yours. Antivirals may not work, and I’m not sure how the “make any kind of pandemic vaccine; you can’t be held accountable” is going to go, anyway. Where did I see, vaccine for 1% of the population of any area a week or something, 6 to 9 months after they get the first strain? They can promise volunteers, sure, but don’t make your choice based on that.
What’s the county level like?
There is no one else :} I have burnt my bridges by already going over his head once when he didn’t have the information. It’s sad for me but I need to shake it. Shake it by meaning helping the town, at least for now. I was on the CERT Team and left there cause the leader was a real manipulative jerk and that is part of emergency management. We got into all kinds of stuff about doing things as a citizen and doing things as a CERT. Supposably you cannot be both in my town. Good news is we have a POD and everyone will be vaccinated (everyone that is left).
How can one be satisified with a plan that says the health officer is in charge, yet the health officer has no plan? How can I be satisfied with the schools closing down after the first confirmed case? Not informing the public cause we can’t have the plan made public? Hey there is a whole host of things I and you would not be satisified with. Small town politics at it’s best!
Thanks for listening. You all are a wealth of info!
Ok so what are we supposed to do? Clearly not every town is as pleasant as Goju’s and I think they see all these questions as an attack and are closing ranks to try and protect themselves. It really makes me mad when all we want is to help and this is the crap we have to deal with. Well first off elections are coming up and some of these positions are political… Also I said it once before, if a pandemic hits and it gets bad people are going to be pissed and looking for someone to blame. We can add another name to the list of people to string up. Their arrogance caused x number of deaths; post pandemic society is not going to be gentle on the decision makers that F’ed it up.
I would suggest if you’ve burnt your bridge anyway… bring public pressure to bear from a more public venue such as an op ed piece in your local paper.. or asking to be put on the agenda at a town council meeting or school board meeting to ask them to provide the up to date information to their constiuents
… it’s easy to ignore one voice.. not so much with a dozenu or two once the word would start to get out that the federal government has told you to plan and coordinate with local & state officials to increase public awareness… what has been done??
That is tactic I’m using with our school (who is waiting for the federal and state governement to tell them what to do) I’m reminding them that they have been told…. told to plan… where is it? What does it say… you need to inform me… that’s what the government has told you to do.
see the 4th bullet at this link pademicflu.gov
Sorry that should’ve been the 2nd bullet at that link
Sorry that should’ve been the 2nd bullet at that link
In sticking your neck out and maybe getting it cut off…you join a select club with a proud history.
Of course, I would have to quote one member of this club: Winston Churchill…
…’some neck’….’some chicken’.
Having met with disappointment, you could talk to friends and acquaintances and in effect circumvent the local authority…
…all floods start with a single rain drop…
…a group of friends with purpose is a powerful thing.
Thanks again for the effort.
And it was well worth the price of 1000 pandemic awareness cards; to think more people might pay attention and start taking action. (Just had one hostile reaction this morning, but, oh well, trust my gut better next time about who will be happy I handed them one, or at least, puzzledly polite.)
Showing skeptics some of the planning assumptions that aren’t geting clear in the press sometimes helps, (some of them don’t know pandemic is expected, don’t know deaths are expected, don’t know no help from outside, don’t know know vaccine at all at first for months, ect) most didn’t know their state had a Pandemic Summit… what a mess.
Is there a page of all the quotes, when and where they have been told to “educate the public about pandemic before it starts”?
And give them the information and tools they will need to shelter or quarantine? “In time to use them” would be nice,too.
TomDvm @ 10:39 reminds me of a song …….
Step by step the longest march,can be done Many stone to form an arch,singley none And by union what we will,can be accomplished still Drops of water turn a mill,singley none
Birdie Kate – at 09:19
Don’t assume you’ve burnt your bridges. Be persisant! Go to the mayor, your rep and speak before your local governing body at a public meeting. Go many times until someone ‘hears’ you. What the emergency mgmr is not releasing is worthless- it’s sites where antibiotics for anthrax are stored and where vaccinations for bioterorrist attacks would be given out- not what you need anyway.
BE PERSISTANT!
And the local funeral homes might need to see Ken West’s “Preparing for the Pandemic”, from the Mass Fatality Planning thread.
The 2-page handoutsfrom the main flu wiki are good for anybody.
This is so frustrating; trying to influence large groups of people is not what I want to do, not what I know how to do, but watching how the officials are ignoring reality is impossible to be part of by doing nothing.
A well written letter to the local newspaper editor explaining you are following the gov pandmic plan to be safe in your community. Type it into the letter. Then say, Mr so and so in charge of our community responded like this………….. I know he’s in error because the Feds say this…….. So Mr. Editor please tell me who is correct? What is a local mom to do? Believe our local guy or the feds? Also ask editor if he will lay out the community plan in his newspaper comparing it to Fed recommendations because his paper is all the residents have to rely on for truth and justice. If you’re going to burn a bridge make sure it burns bright. Have no embarrassment at typing in the local guy’s name, it’s not a secret. He’s getting paid to do it. Best of luck!
Ok here are my thoughts:
Doesn’t appear to me that enough people are interested to get a “group” together.
We are governed by Selectmen, no Mayor. Yes elections for some are coming up and I will vote accordingly.
I believe that because I have been outspoken and called them on things which they have no answers that I am now “off limits” Meaning no one who knows anything will talk to me. Politics at it’s worst.
Yes this has really made me mad and I don’t understand when people are willing to help that TPTB shoo them off. Egos burn brains.
I sincerely believe that there ignorance will cause more deaths than necessary. They do not plan on telling anyone anything.
The medical plan should be public info. The law states “any discussions regarding deliberate acts that would cause widespread destruction or illness” well we all know avian flu is not deliberate (all conspiracies aside)
I am known in this town for being a good kid, ok I am not a kid :} but I do not want people to think of me as a crackpot either.
Leo, that’s funny. I don’t know if I am ready to burn so bright!
I actually think there is no “Health Officer” plan and our new Health officer will be writing it. The guy they want for the job has a degree in Landscaping and somthing else, nothing medical.
Whew- thought you were in my town, there for a minute…sounds too familiar (unless our’s has just bugged out to Canyon Ranch or something, and it was cheaper to hire a landscaper; for the “collective burials”…)
;-)
Be nice to your town crackpot; they too may have thought the authorities didn’t get the memo Oct. 2005, and now are too frustrated to be able to write something in the paper and get believed.
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