Re: Opinons & Discussion - Obama Declares Swine Flu Emergency
I hope the decisonmakers are alot smarter than I fear they are, but I'm afraid they've suddenly realized that the vaccine isn't the solution that they had counted on and there is no backup plan. Also, maybe they are starting to believe that the 90,000+ deaths predicted by the President's commission could actually come to pass and that as many as 15,000 of those could be children.
Things could get very ugly if people start realizing that the vast majority of those who want the vaccine won't get it until 2010 and that Tamiflu might not help as this thing unfolds. Widely publisized decisions to give 10% of the vaccines to the WHO and to make prison inmates some of the first to get vaccinated in some states will only serve to fan the flames of the fear, anger, resentment and panic that they have desperately tried to prevent. But, because of the public health officials' repeated attempts to downplay every death and compare this with seasonal flu, they have started losing credibility. There could now be wholesale panic (with all its ugly consequences) in some places because people will no longer listen to public health officials.
I imagine someone in the CDC/HHS/Homeland Security finally summoned the nerve to say "Hey, we need to start planning". Unfortunately, we're past the planning for prevention and left with planning for containment and potential damage control. I just hope they don't do things for show (like closing schools for a couple of days and sanitizing the doorknobs

) but take meaningful steps to slow this thing down.
Anyway, that's my amateur take on it. I hope I am way off base. I really do.
My take-away is that this is the signal for me to implement my personal plan to protect my family as much as possible. The coming weeks are the time we've been discussing for months where H1N1 will be widespread, hospitals will be overcrowded, and we might have to take care of ourselves. As a practical example, today I cut my hand and it needed a couple of stitches. I stopped at the local ER, saw the crowds, and instead of risking exposure, went to a friend who is a nurse and settled for betadine and a couple of butterfly bandages. These are the types of small day-to-day actions all of us need to consider in the coming weeks.