Smallpox Drill Held at White House Complex

[wakeme2008]

:scared:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-White-House-Smallpox.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

March 18, 2006
Smallpox Drill Held at White House Complex
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 11:55 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Cabinet officials gathered at the White House complex on Saturday for a drill simulating a smallpox attack against the United States.

The four-hour exercise to test the government's response plans was conducted by Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and Centers of Disease Control Director Dr. Julie Gerberding and others.

..more at link...

[acmavm]

1. Man, we are in trouble when we read about something like this and the

first thing that pops into our minds is "I wonder what they're up to now".

[hobbit709]

2. Given that the incubation period

is about 10-12 days, how many people will have been exposed before the Keystone Kops either figure out what's going on or then do something effective about it?

[woodsprite]

6. Don't worry. They'll know about it ahead of time. n/t

[DoYouEverWonder]

14. You're not contagious

during the incumbation period. Only when you have active sores. By that point you will be flat on your back.

[hedgehog]

32. Are you certain about that?

I thought that small pox was also transmitted through the respiratory system like chicken pox. I think that during the French and Indian War it spread through many Indian tribes through the Upper Midwest and West because many young men traveled to the East to join the fight, were exposed to the virus and then traveled back West while still asymptomatic.

Just wanted to be reassuring here.

[DoYouEverWonder]

35. Yes,

Smallpox is spread mostly through close contact with some from someone with an active case. Back in the 1900's, most of the people who caught smallpox got it from taking care of someone with an active case, usually another family member.

Besides, most of us have been vaccinated against small pox and probably still have some resistance from that, though there is no guarantee.

[hobbit709]

39. I was thinking more in the line of

where the original infection came from. If you even infect a dozen people that get out and about before they come down with the symptoms, then they may possibly infect others when they become contagious before it's diagnosed. Get enough vectors and you have a problem. I thank the powers that be that I have a natural immunity to smallpox, according to the doctors that tried to vaccinate me 40-odd years ago and could never get it to take.

[KoKo]

3. Thanks for the post. I saw this on CNN this a.m. before I had my coffee

and frankly I thought I was still asleep and not hearing and seeing what I was watching.

It's very bizarre... And, I couldn't imagine what they are thinking? Are we supposed to be very afraid...or something? Another stunt after this weeks "The greatist Air Offensive against Iraq since the 2003 Invasion?"

Their Propaganda machine seems broken....or it's stuck in a groove it can't get out of. :crazy:

[reprobate]

27. KKKarl is now in over his head. Too busy controlling the repuglican

...congress and it's rebellious hordes to properly run a propaganda stunt now. He used to be rather good at it, but everyone reaches that 'Peter Principle' point eventually.

[bobthedrummer]

4. Dr. Christine Fair, Mark Buller, Jerome Hauer, and maybe other operatives

linked to Tommy Thompson were likely represented too imho.

Is she linked to Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals by any chance?

[Whoa_Nelly]

5. Check out this site Re: Drills before the incidents actually occurred

Smallpox Drill?? :wtf: Is this the next MIHOP?

Check out the linked research this member of Team8Plus-a specialized 9/11 research team web forum did about pre-9/11 incident drills:

http://team8plus.org/forum_viewtopic.php?6.16

[kestrel91316]

37. Here's the Bush WH game plan:

Fabricate some more nonsense about Iran and nukes, then nuke THEM in alleged retaliation. Then smallpox will appear magically in the major cities of the US and the WH will call it terra-ist retaliation by Iran. Then bomb the rest of Iran back to parking-lot status. Declare martial law in the US (to "control smallpox" while conveniently taking away all our civil rights), and suspend all elections.

Voila! Welcome to the Republic of Gilead. Now they will get to take us all back to medieval times, and nobody will be able to do a damned thing about it.

[bobthedrummer]

7. Project BioShield partners link

They include CACI, Hollis-Eden, Vical, Chimerix and other San Diego based companies and individuals.
http://inn.globalfreepress.com/modules/news/atricle.php?storyid=577

Remember how the San Diego NCAA venue was closed down the other day because of a "hot dog" vendor?

[Rose Siding]

8. Fighting the War on Terror, one highly publicized photo op at a time

Snap the pictures here so we don't have to snap them over....er....Have them line up here, so we don't......Can't get fooled again!

[wordpix2]

9. WH drill: all go to underground undisclosed locations while the rest

of us are exposed to the biological agents above ground. From the underground bunkers, * issues "heckuva job" statements to Chertoff and pals while stating DC is completely safe.

[tanyev]

10. Crap. OK, I got the tuna and milk under my bed for the bird flu.

What do you put under your bed for smallpox?

[jhain]

13. a chicken n/t

[Retrograde]

24. a cow would be more appropriate

even though the government ensures us not to have one.

I'll stick with the dust bunnies for now.

[progressivebydesign]

21. Did Leavitt REALLY suggest that? I thought it was a joke.

We are soooo screwed. I'm NOT putting tuna under my bed for god's sake. Tuna and powdered milk? He forgot to mention a can opener.

[et in Arcadia ego]

11. smallpox

As far as I've understood it, Smallpox was sufficiently erradicated to the point where the only existing viri samples were located at Ft. Detrick..How the virus got from there to countries/organizations deemed a threat to the United States is beyond me, only when assuming a benign stance by the US Government..

"Smallpox is the only major human disease to have been eradicated."

http://choo.fis.utoronto.ca/fis/courses/lis2102/KO.WHO.case.html

Why this Adminsitration feels a need to drill against a biological weapon only they are supposed to still retain raises very provocative questions..

[jhain]

12. Military vaccination program

Anyone who has been through boot camp during the last few years has been vaccinated. I would love to see a list of THOSE complications. (Yeah, right) The CDC lists enough contraindications to exclude virtually everyone but it hasn't slowed anybody down.
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/vaccination/faq.asp

Plenty of senior military people been shot full of it, too.
In the beginning, they were telling people to get a room for 30 days and not to be around their families...how many do you think did THAT?


Be the perfect excuse for martial law now, wouldn't it?

[bemildred]

15. This is strange, really strange. nt

[progressivebydesign]

20. Not strange. It's a psych ops on Americans.. to frighten us with Iran.

They did this in the run up to the war on Iraq. It's what they do.. they're fucking with our minds to make us believe and wonder if Iran is going to attack us. Doesn't everyone here remember the run on smallpox vaccinations and claims that Iraq was going to attack us with it???

[Judi Lynn]

16. Government holds smallpox drill at White House complex

Posted 3/18/2006 12:06 PM
Government holds smallpox drill at White House complex

WASHINGTON (AP) — Cabinet officials gathered at the White House complex on Saturday for a drill simulating a smallpox attack against the United States.

The four-hour exercise to test the government's response plans was conducted by Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and Centers of Disease Control Director Dr. Julie Gerberding and others.

The World Health Organization reported the disease was eradicated in 1980. But there are fears that smallpox could be used by terrorists as a biological weapon.

The United States ended routine childhood vaccination against smallpox in 1971. But the Bush administration, about 15 months after the attacks of the Sept. 11, 2001, ordered some military personnel vaccinated and recommended shots for front-line health care workers.
(snip/...)

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-03-18-smallpox-drill_x.htm

[DiverDave]

17. I recommend reading

"The Demon in the Freezer"

It'll scare ya, It did me.

http://cryptome.org/smallpox-wmd.htm

[et in Arcadia ego]

18. disinfo warning

Watch out for Richard Preston; he's funded by the Sloan Foundation(A sub-topic all of it's own) and does alot of whitewashing/disinfo for TPTB..Take a look at all the books he's written and you'll see an unpleasant pattern emerge.

[NYC]

40. He wrote Hot Zone, didn't he?

I didn't read that. I read The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett. That was a good book.

Welcome to DU. :hi: I'm going to read The Demon in the Freezer now.

[DiverDave]

42. So that lessens the threat?

I never heard of him being a tool.

Sounds like a smear from the neocons.

[progressivebydesign]

19. Here we go again!!! Now it'll be Iran that is supposedly the risk.

Don'tcha love how, when they were running up to the war on Iraq, that they went apeshit over smallpox vaccines and drills???? Guess what?? They're fucking doing it again. They are masters at psych ops on their own people... it's so freakin' obvious why they did this. Get America scared.. scare scare scare.. that's all they know how to do. They should all be in prison. All of them.

[Divernan]

22. An avian influenza drill by another name - not as scary to the public.

As Joe Connason set out in a Salon piece (March 17),
www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2006/03/17/stupid_budget

"The mad cow embarrassment, which has so far inflicted suffering mainly on American beef exporters, fades in comparison with the government's frighteningly tardy, feeble and stingy response to the prospect of an avian flu pandemic in this country. with disease-bearing birds literally on the horizon, the latest advice from HHS Secretarywas none too comforting: Store some cans of tuna and some boxes of crackers under your beds, he said - and don't expect much help from the federal government if and when the pandemic strikes."

There is still no real national plan to deal with a pandemic, and the official in charge of handling the prolem, a crony (can you say, Heckuva job, crony?)of former HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, has just resigned. It is interesting that in the so-called "smallpox" drill, the Agriculture Secretary was one of the main players conducting this drill. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but a smallpox attack against the US would come directly against humans, not animals - perhaps aerosol or water supplies, and then spreading from person-to-person contact. It's not like the terrorists are out to contaminate massive amounts of agricultural products. But in the case of an avian flu pandemic, the Agriculture Dept. would have the immense burden of ensuring a safe food supply.

Also saw an article last week, sorry, no cite, that the federal agency overseeing banks had urged them all to make provisions to continue their essential functions in the event that the great majority of their employees contracted avian flu.

Ergo, connecting the deadly dots, I conclude this drill was a cover for a pandemic from bird flu.

On edit, see post 11 above.

[tom_paine]

23. Sounds like it's gettin' to be time for another "terrorist" attack by Nov.

Smallpox, anyone?

Naah. I think it's just going to be a standard version of the New Product Rollout on Battlefield Nuking Iran in Mar.-May 2007.

With the New Product Rollout for our Dear Leader's bright and shiny Holocaust just in time to suck up all media chatter prior to the Nov. elections.

They will smallpox us only as a last resort if we continue to cling to antiquated dreams of freedom or fair elections.

[Retrograde]

25. How does one hold a smallpox drill?

Fire drills, earthquake drills, tornado drills, even planes crashing into buildings drills I can understand - they're all sudden catastrophic events- but how does one hold a drill for a disease that takes some time to incubate and spread. "OK, everyone, when I open this vial of simulated viruses start running around aimlessly, issue contradictory declarations, get in the way of the people who are trying to do something and give yourselves medals! And don't forget to pose for the photo op!"

From the article:
"Federal officials said that a similar rehearsal in December for pandemic flu showed that saving lives and containing economic damage would require more planning in local communities and increased production of vaccines and medications."

Actually, I can understand if the powers that be wanted to periodically check that their communications lines were all present and working, but has all this local preparation been put in place?

[uppityperson]

29. This was my thought also.

when in trouble
when in doubt
run in circles
scream and shout

I can see them wanting to see if their communications work AT ALL, and then FIXING THEM SO THEY DO, but what else does it involve?

[HuffleClaw]

26. simulate or PRACTICE for ?

i guess anthrax wasn't enough for 'em?

[reprobate]

28. I'm beginning to think Tom Clancy had the right idea.

[rodeodance]

30. only thing to protect us will be the vaccine and it is squirreled

away --

AS gov. officials they will be first to get the vaccine.

[rodeodance]

31. Canned Tuna and Powdered Milk For the Bird Flu

http://www2.kbcitv.com/x70780.xml
====

March 13, 2006


Canned Tuna and Powdered Milk For the Bird Flu

By Art Swift BOISE -
The Secretary of Health and Human Services this weekend told Americans what they should have in case bird flu strikes: powdered milk and canned tuna under your bed

"Powdered milk and a can of tuna under my bed," a woman on the Grove told KBCI Local 2 News. "And what will that do?"

"Under my bed?" a man wondered. "I don't have it in my bed but I have it in my cupboard."

No one we spoke to in downtown Boise seemed to be doing anything should an outbreak occur.

"Am I prepared for the bird flu?" a man on Main Street asked. "I don't think anyone's prepared for the bird flu. I don't even know what the bird flu is."

"I'm not prepared, no," a woman on Main Street said. "I know there's evidence that it's definitely coming this way, but I'm not prepared in any way. I'm not going to stockpile food or anything."

[sarcasmo]

33. I wonder if they all ate TUNA in order top prepare for the

attack, on the public the Bird Flu.

[hedgehog]

34. I heard that the cafeteria had to be evacuated for a brief time

but that no one could have foreseen that someone would have reheated a tunafish sandwich in the microwave.

[Lars39]

36. I've never heard the White House called a "complex" before.

Sounds like they're rallying the survivalists and militia. :tinfoilhat:

[savemefromdumbya]

38. Is a vial of smallpox going to creep out of Fort Detrick like the anthrax?

I got the vaccination some years ago - is it still good?

[NYC]

41. Last I heard, there was no real answer to that question.

Some said that after 5 years, the immunity is gone. Some said it diminishes over time, but there may be some residual benefit even 30 years after the vaccination.

In other words, no one really knew.

[Canuckistanian]

43. I thought smallpox had been "ir-radiated"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=693811

Hmmm, kinda makes you think. Remember the military solutions to a bird flu pandemic?

I guess the same tactics would work on a minor smallpox epidemic, say in Florida around election time.