Of course, knowing that this is the dominant philosophy in the West Wing, thanks to Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s unusual candor, when I read this morning that The Great Pretender and noted Nobel Peace Prize Winner Barrack Hussein Obama declared the swine flu outbreak a national emergency, I had to wonder, what is the end game really is.
The excuse given in the article was:
Health authorities say more than 1,000 people in the United States, including almost 100 children, have died from the strain of flu known as H1N1, and 46 states have widespread flu activity.
While no one likes hearing about people dying, except Democratic lawmakers who push Unconstitutional Health Insurance Takeover plans, replete with bureaucratic panels who will decide if we are too old to receive the care our doctors prescribe, or if the care is simply too expensive, the fact is that this is not a startlingly high number for flu deaths. Spend a quick few minutes with a search engine, and you will find that in a typical year in the U.S., the numbers of deaths attributed to influenza number in the tens of thousands. The CDC categorizes these deaths with pneumonia, so it is hard to say what their total is, but other sources put the number between 30,000 and 66,000 deaths annually.
When taken in this context, it hardly seems to be an “emergency”. So what does declaring it an emergency get the Manchurian Presidunt?
Again, from the article:
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius now has authority to bypass federal rules when opening alternative care sites, such as offsite hospital centers at schools or community centers if hospitals seek permission.
Some hospitals have opened drive-thrus and drive-up tent clinics to screen and treat swine flu patients. The idea is to keep infectious people out of regular emergency rooms and away from other sick patients.
Hospitals could modify patient rules — for example, requiring them to give less information during a hectic time — to quicken access to treatment, with government approval, under the declaration.
It also addresses a financial question for hospitals — reimbursement for treating people at sites not typically approved. For instance, federal rules do not allow hospitals to put up treatment tents more than 250 yards away from the doors; if the tents are 300 yards or more away, typically federal dollars won’t go to pay for treatment.
So far, so good…and then a clue:
The national emergency declaration was the second of two steps needed to give Sebelius extraordinary powers during a crisis.
On April 26, the administration declared swine flu a public health emergency, allowing the shipment of roughly 12 million doses of flu-fighting medications from a federal stockpile to states in case they eventually needed them. At the time, there were 20 confirmed cases in the U.S. of people recovering easily. There was no vaccine against swine flu, but the CDC had taken the initial step necessary for producing one.
So this got me thinking, “What other powers would the blood-money grubbing HHS Secretary have?”
I don’t know that I have satisfied myself as to the answer, but I did find a copy of the National Strategy on Pandemic Flu. It was appropriately vague. Then I found a presentation on the applicable federal law (pay attention to pages 56 to 76) Of more concern was the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act, which is the model language drafted by the CDC for review and adoption by the individual states.
Of particular concern:
Under the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act, upon the declaration of a “public health emergency,” governors and public health officials would be empowered to:
1.Force individuals suspected of harboring an “infectious disease” to undergo medical examinations.
2.Track and share an individual’s personal health information, including genetic information.
3.Force persons to be vaccinated, treated, or quarantined for infectious diseases.
4.Mandate that all health care providers report all cases of persons who harbor any illness or health condition that may be caused by an epidemic or an infectious agent and might pose a “substantial risk” to a “significant number of people or cause a long-term disability.” (Note: Neither “substantial risk” nor “significant number” are defined in the draft.)
5.Force pharmacists to report any unusual or any increased prescription rates that may be caused by epidemic diseases.
6.Preempt existing state laws, rules and regulations, including those relating to privacy, medical licensure, and–this is key–property rights.
7.Control public and private property during a public health emergency, including pharmaceutical manufacturing plants, nursing homes, other health care facilities, and communications devices.
8.Mobilize all or any part of the “organized militia into service to the state to help enforce the state’s orders.”
9.Ration firearms, explosives, food, fuel and alcoholic beverages, among other commodities.
10.Impose fines and penalties to enforce their orders.
Now between extensive quarantine powers, and states that could have provisions 6-10 of the above list on their books, it is enough to say “Yeah. I can see how this certainly is a crisis that Komisar Emanuel and the rest of the O Crew just might want to take advantage of. You might never know when that awful Swine Flu might strike the red states…say right after passage of an illegal Health Insurance Takeover Bill, maybe?”
Just sayin’, s’all. Maybe you’re still the trusting sort. I’m not anymore. When a snake pokes its snout into my life and says “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”, I watch it very closely, and start wondering if I can cut it’s head off before it bites me.
H/t to the loverly SoHoS for the second image of Dear Leader.
Cross-posted at Taxes, Stupidity, and Death.
Cross-posted at The Hostages.
Geez, I have the flu…hope they don’t send me off to the quarantine camps.
Do you want a cot near the Creamatorium or the
ReEducationTreatment Center?I want creamatorium in my coffee…
No problem.
*snaps fingers*
“Holdren! The russian wants his coffee Auschwitz style!”
It’s “crematorium”, not CREAMatorium.
Do you have Spellcheck? You should use it. You can’t spell for shit.
Oh So Sorry, Mr. DeadRussianMonk. As much as I live not to offend you delicate sensibilities, perhaps you have observed that there is no Spellcheck on the comments.
Are those my only two choices? I guess I’ll take my chances with the “Treatment Center.”
I imagine that they might have something special for collaborators, but I didn’t really think that was your style. 🙂
I didn’t realize I was in the category of a collaborator.
Did I say that you were? The comment might bear re-reading.
What’s interesting about this is that I don’t think we truly have any idea on the size of the problem.
I’m in Virginia, hit pretty hard by H1N1 right now. My kid goes to private school which had two cases pop up, one in his class. I immediately pull him from school, but too late, he’s fighting the flu.
Now, I can’t necessarily say he has the H1N1. The cases in school were confirmed, but my pediatricians won’t test and is telling us to stay home. Hospital can test, but say it is really expensive and will post it later to the insurance company, but they would rather he stay home.
So I can’t really get him tested, b ut he’s got something bad (really high fevers) and we may be making the trip to ER anyway if this doesn’t clear soon (going into night #3).
The hospital is telling folks to stay away, and the peds isn’t touching it with a ten foot poll, probably out of liability fears, so my guess is that whatever numbers you’re hearing about cases of H1N1- the reality is at least double.
Sorry to hear about your kid, gorilla.
I know that the high fevers can suck as bad for the parents as they can for the kids. My oldest was born in Nov 1999. On New Year’s Eve, at the turn of the century, we were in the ER in Lansing with him because he had a 104 fever that wouldn’t drop. Holding down your 1.5 month old son so the docs can do a spinal tap on him is not something that I would wish on my worst enemy.
He was there for the next three days. They pumped him so full of antibotics and tylenol that his diapers reeked of them. And a peds ward is about the worst place in the world to try to get a decent night’s sleep.
Learn to spell without it…besides, it was in your post, not comments.
Dosdevanya.
The word “creamatorium” is in the reply to Folly’s first comment. It does not appear anywhere in the post. My response to your criticism remains factually correct.
For someone so quick to correct a technical error, you yourself failed to get your facts straight. That is a little like spitting into the wind, isn’t it?
However, if my unassisted spelling bothers you, you could always not read it.
Are pinheads still whining about spelling errors on the Internet? I thought that that one had already run its course, to the point that it had become a joke itself.
GR must have missed the memo. Or decided to roll around in mean-spirited petulance anyway. One of the two.
Hey, Geoff –
If one is going to bloviate like a two-bit politician from the Windy City you should be able to spell better than a two-bit whore from L.A.
Again, you are welcome to not read it.
Nobody is twisting your arm, and if this is what you bring to the table, I can’t say I’ll miss your scintillating input.
By the way, comments do have Spellcheck. It’s that little red underline. So there.
I’m not sure what wordpress template you are referring to, but the comment window for this template does not include any Spellcheck, or redline attachments.
Actually, Grigory is ritght — this comment field has a spellchecker which picked up words that I deliberately misspelled.
“Ritght” has a red underline.
And when I type “Ritght”, it doesn’t.
Npoe. No redline here.
That’s weird. Your commenters get a feature that you don’t.
FIREFOX!!!
If one is going to bloviate like a two-bit politician from the Windy City you should be able to spell better than a two-bit whore from L.A.
Not really. A nice little specious pseudo-aphorism, but that’s all it is.
The bottom line is that spelling errors are regrettable, but criticizing those errors just makes you look small.
[…] Also, take a moment to read Blackiswhite Imperial Consigliere’s concerns of the purview given Secretary Sebelius and the Federal Government via said “emergen… […]
specious pseudo-aphorism
Nice redundancy. And it’s either misspelled or it isn’t. There is nothing specious about my comment. So fuck you, Geoff.
Nice redundancy.
Not really redundant. Not that I expect you to follow that.
And it’s either misspelled or it isn’t.
Going with the strawman, now? Nobody argued whether it was misspelled. We argued with whether the misspelling was important, or whether proper spelling was a requirement for blogging.
There is nothing specious about my comment.
You don’t even know what you’re talking about. Idiot.
What’s up with your douchebag troll?
Dude, or bitch, or whatever the fuck you are. If you don’t like this page, don’t fucking read it.
Are we sure that these vacinations are meant to prevent and not worsen the swine flu?
[…] In the examination room, he laboriously went through the several reasons he felt I should get a flu shot, and finished with “and you didn’t just get a flu shot. Your last flu shot was in December. The shot I gave you in May was for pneumonia. Just get the damn shot.” I got the shot. I was surprised to discover that my local oil change place wasn’t offering flu shots this afternoon when I spent my lunch hour getting a flush and fill on my radiator. Of course, I suppose that some people have to get it, you know, so that we can have an emergency that won’t go to waste. […]