US mulls federal troops for bird flu quarantine (the next step?)

[truthpusher]

http://reuters.myway.com/article/20051012/2005-10-12T192302Z_01_SCH268992_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-BIRDFLU-USA-PENTAGON-DC.html

US mulls federal troops for bird flu quarantine
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Oct 12, 3:23 PM (ET)
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By Will Dunham
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon is looking at the possibility of using federal troops to enforce a quarantine in the event of an outbreak of pandemic bird flu in the United States, a senior official said on Wednesday.

(snip)

Paul McHale, assistant defense secretary for homeland defense, said quarantine law historically has been under the primary jurisdiction of states, not the federal government.

"And my expectation is that any quarantine measures that would be put in place would likely involve a substantial employment of the National Guard, probably under command and control of the governor of an affected state," McHale told a group of reporters.

"However, we are looking at a wide range of contingencies, potentially involving Title 10 forces (federal troops) if a pandemic outbreak of a biological threat were to occur," McHale added.

(snip)

complete story: http://reuters.myway.com/article/20051012/2005-10-12T192302Z_01_SCH268992_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-BIRDFLU-USA-PENTAGON-DC.html

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Too bad everyone who is a poster in, member or friend of

DU are not in one town/city.... huh? Wouldn't that be something now..... I wonder how long it would take them to seal it off....

[Parche]

2. hype

What do they know that we dont, is this bird flu just hype
to use the military against us?

[ekelly]

10. B*sh family "TO DO" list:

1. Infect murikans with bird flu.

2. Interject military in "supportive" role.

3. Wait til millions are dead and incapacitated.

4. Amid the chaos, suffering, mourning, etc..... announce quarantine
for the murikans "own good".

5. Dress the "selected one" in shiny boots with pants tucked in and
glue tiny square moustache to upper lip.

6. Commence the occupation of murika and the repression of its
citizens.

[norml]

3. McHale's Navy

[nickyt]

4. I found it interesting that the present-dent's first thoughts on a

possible flu epidemic were not in the nature of reassuring us that we would be well taken care of, that all measures would be taken to protect us and care for the sick and bring doctors and health-care workers to outbreak sites..nope. Really, we American citizens are the LAST thing on his mind. HE'S going to call in the "military" - which, uh - is that basically is only solution for every problem he encounters? Bring in some armed guys in uniforms? That's all he's got to offer, isn't it?

[meti57b]

5. Here's their advance prediction map of areas to be quarantined............

Flu is expected to affect areas of highest population density ...as shown in blue on the map, below:

[nodehopper]

6. is this the 2004 election map?

[iamjoy]

7. Who Needs Posse Comitatas?

That is soooo Nineteenth Century, yeah?

[iamjoy]

8. Quarantine Is A Dumb Idea Anyway

Maybe 'cos the Bush administration's point man for a flu pandemic has no public health management experience, so everything he knows he learned from watching that Dustin Hoffman movie.

A quarantine would have very limited effectiveness because it is unlikely any flue pandemic would start in a small town. It would probably start in a suburb or city and by the time we realized what was happening, infectious people would have already traveled to other areas.

[HuffleClaw]

11. exactly

they'd be shutting the barn door after...

but it would let 'em prove to the chosen that THEY are SAFE as they put troops on the streets to protect the 'good' parts of the cities. just like in new orleans when they hired their pet mercenaries to go and guard the mansions. same thing, but on a vastly larger scale.

[LynnTheDem]

9. bin Laden is still free...

We won't be.

[Carolab]

12. This is insane. We need to push for PREVENTION not DETENTION.

How can we start something up that brings attention to how they are not trying to stop this so that they can declare martial law?

[Athame]

13. Well, now that the bird flu is in Turkey

They can quarantine the military over there (in Iraq) so they don't have to quarantine them here. :evilgrin:

Seriously, the bird flu in Turkey is too close to Iraq. With the people there in poor health and looking for food, seems like a bad combination for the further development of the disease.

[Bridget Burke]

14. Exactly the WRONG steps to take right now....

We need funding for scientific research--when & how might the flu mutate to be directly transmissible between humans? Coordinate with research done in other countries; Avian Flu did not appear yesterday. The knowledge will also be useful later. If this is not The Big Flu, another will come along. That's the way influenza works.

Get the big pharms involved in finding ways to mass produce the vaccine, should one be created. (Those folks can't be trusted to safely produce "regular" flu vaccine.)

Plan for the public health response. Those who whine that most flu victims die of "secondary infections" (NOT the case in 1918-1919) don't realize that treating so many people will put a strain on an already strained system.

Ensure that City, County & State health officials are organized. Many of them are--but the Feds don't seem to know it. (I'm sure that some Federal employees are aware--but incompetent appointed executives are in charge.)

"Scream, scream, send in the Army!" is idiotic & frightening. But what else can we expect from President Idiotic & Frightening?

[Mika]

15. Just how are they going to quarantine migratory birds?

This is the most obvious move to install the militarization of our nation.


:scared: