HHS Secy Basically Says Don't Count on Federal Government, re: bird flu

[journalist3072]

At today's joint bird blu press conference:

HHS Secy Mike Leavitt:

Local preparedness is the foundation of pandemic readiness. Any community that fails to prepare with the expectation that the federal government will at the last moment be able to come to the rescue will be tragically wrong, not because the federal government lacks will, not because we lack wallet, but because there is no way in which 5,000 different communities can be responded to simultaneously, which is a unique characteristic of a human pandemic.

Here's another thread I started, with some other thoughts on the bird flu press conference today, and how NPR's Jeff Young kicked major behind!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=710912&mesg_id=710912

[spindrifter]

1. Our NPR station was playing

something about emergency preparedness for bird flu. I had not really thought about it, but they will probably quarantine people, so the speakers were talking about having enough supplies to get through two weeks. It may be two weeks that you and yours are ill or two weeks that you don't want to expose yourself to others. What I have not heard, though, is some of the locals talking about how to deal with us people when we are sick--orders to stay home from work and school, for example. Maybe it's tinfoil.