Originally published November 4 2005
Bush's pandemic plan suggests U.S. would restrict travel in the event of a flu outbreak
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
According to the provisions of the Bush administration's pandemic plan, travel plans as well as hospital visits could be restricted in the event that avian influenza becomes an epidemic in the U.S.
A flu pandemic that hits the United States would force cities to ration scarce drugs and vaccine and house the sick in hotels or schools when hospitals overflow, unprecedented federal plans say.
The Bush administration's long-awaited report Wednesday on battling a worldwide super-flu outbreak makes clear that old-fashioned infection-control will be key.
Signs that a super-flu is spreading among people anywhere in the world could prompt U.S. travel restrictions or other steps to contain the illness before it hits America's shores.
If that fails, the Pandemic Influenza Plan offers specific instructions to local health officials: The sick or the people caring for them should wear masks.
A day after President Bush outlined his $7.1 billion strategy to prepare for the next pandemic, the details released Wednesday stress major steps that state and local authorities must begin taking now: Update quarantine laws.
"This is a critical part of the plan," because states will be at the forefront of a battle that could have "5,000 fronts," said Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, who will work with governors in coming weeks to push local preparations.
"Every community is different and requires a different approach."
Also Wednesday, the government for the first time told Americans not to hoard the anti-flu drug Tamiflu, because doing so will hurt federal efforts to stockpile enough to treat the sick who really need it.
''A vaccine against the current avian flu virus would likely offer some protection against a pandemic strain and possibly save many lives in the first critical months of an outbreak.''
Pandemics strike when the easy-to-mutate influenza virus shifts to a strain that people have never experienced before, something that happened three times in the last century.
It's impossible to predict when the next pandemic will strike, or its toll.
But concern is rising that the Asian bird flu, called the H5N1 strain, might trigger one if it eventually starts spreading easily from person-to-person.
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