This should probably go in the Pit, but I think more people need to know. Funding for pandemic preparation was axed from President Obama’s Stimulus Bill…by…three guesses.
Come on, it’s an easy one.
GOP Stripped Flu Pandemic Preparedness From Stimulus
And if that’s not enough, the confirmation of one of the people who should be in place helping to deal with any problems with a pandemic, is being held up by…guess who!
How many babies will die thanks to the “Abortion Queen” vs. swine flu? Sounds like it’s better to save more babies than it is people dying from the flu. At least that’s the rationale that I would cling to if I were a hardcore pro-lifer that referred to the HHS nominee as the “Abortion Queen.”
She’ll be the Secretary of Health and Human Services, not Bwana the Great White Baby Hunter.
The latest headline:
Flu Or No Flu, Health Sec’s Nomination Will Still Require 60 Votes, GOP Says
These people are disgusting beyond belief. They hate people. They hate kids (especially poor kids) but they looooove their fetuses! Hooboy do they love those globs of tissue. To hell with 'em after they’re born though.
So it’s your opinion that a fake, media-created non-emergency which does not require the attention of anybody above the civil-service bureaucrat level in government is justification enough for one party to change its mind on a nomination that they have opposed from the beginning?
If that’s the case, we need to create a new pile of media frenzy bullshit every god damn day.
If you say so. :rolleyes:
You guys are trying. Too bad it’s generally not working, but hey, some Darfur-protesting congressmen got arrested at a protest today. I’m sure you’ll be on top of that for a while. Anything to deflect attention.
Don’t play rolly-eyes. And don’t “you guys” me. You clearly have no idea what my opinions on politics are, and have completely evaded the point about bullshit media fearmongering.
It may well be bullshit media fearmongering. Massive news coverage, bold headlines, mass hysteria over a few suspected cases, yet how many people know that 40,000 people die of the flu in the United States EVERY YEAR?? I didn’t, until earlier today, thanks to the Dope.
But the point is that we need to be prepared for when the “Big One” does hit, and that money was needed and will have to be gotten and spent anyway, especially now after this scare.
The point is that the Republicans are holding up the nomination of a woman who needs to be in the thick of things NOW, so she’ll be better prepared in the future, simply because she’s pro-choice. A lot of people in government are pro-choice. A lot of people in the country are pro-choice. It’s not like she was discovered to be a kitten-eating pedophile gay Nazi Klanswoman. Or worse, a SOCIALIST!
Well, first of all, “the flu” != swine flu specifically. As you note, tens of thousands of people die from various kinds of influenza every year. So far, there have been fewer than 100 confirmed deaths caused by swine flu in the whole world. The beginning of a pandemic? Possibly. The beginning of a global orgy of death and consequent zombie uprising destroying all civilization? Doubtful.
The fact is, the federal government deals with flu season every year. Every year it’s a different viral strain, and every year there are alarmist nutballs screaming about how this one is going to be 1918 all over again. The fact is, if this year’s flu season is within a few standard deviations of all previous flu seasons, the Public Health Service, state and local health departments, and the rest of the government infrastructure are prepared to deal with it whether the current Surgeon General nominee has been approved or not. If it’s outside that range, a lot of people are going to die, and it’s doubtful that the nomination of one person will significantly affect the ability of the government to react, for better or worse. And remember that there is currently an Acting SG, anyway. The position is not vacant.
I don’t like the filibustering of a nominee over her stance on abortion any more than you. But I can respect that people who do care about the medical opinions of a person nominated to be the primary advisor to the executive on medical policy might have something to say about it. And I reject as craven and opportunistic the use of a manufactured emergency to attempt to shame those people into putting their opinions aside.
[quote=“Equipoise, post:8, topic:494536”]
It may well be bullshit media fearmongering. Massive news coverage, bold headlines, mass hysteria over a few suspected cases, yet how many people know that 40,000 people die of the flu in the United States EVERY YEAR?? I didn’t, until earlier today, thanks to the Dope.
[quote]
You do understand that the “flu”, bolded, underlined and with excalmation points!! does not equal the swine flu, right??
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I understand perfectly well the differences, and the specific dangers of a flu that targets young healthy people rather than the very old, the very young, the weak and the sick. I also understand how the media can twist, manipulate and blow things out of proportion.
But the big one will come someday, possibly someday soon, and while Sebelius being held up for a few days or week for the loonball’s “principles”* won’t make that much of a difference, she’s being kept away from a golden on-the-job-training opportunity.
And the Stimulus money that was cut is needed now more than ever. It was for pandemic preparation, after all. This is a good time for a mini-test run.
*I still call hypocrisy on them, just on general principle, because they only care about children when they’re zygotes, not after they’re born and need help.
Maybe I’m being naive, but I think the average person isn’t going to panic or do anything too stupid after learning about swine flu. It’s just another piece of information that may or may not be useful. No fearmongering in that. Heck, even China has resolved to be more vigilant with this than they were with SARS.
Trust me, you don’t want a SARs style outbreak. thank you very much
We need a LOT of things. A LOT. There are zillions of things out there that desperately need funding and government action. It is unfortunate that many of them don’t get it, or get it only after a significant delay, but that is the one of the prices we pay for a democratic society. Hindsight often makes it easy to decide what we should have done, but mass hysteria is no reason to suspend our system of government. You may not like what some elected representatives are doing, but it is their right to do so. IF this flu turns into a bona fide emergency, I seriously doubt that the government will be unable to cope. We’ve been preparing for a long time.
Chill.
Equipoise, the argument that the swine flu epidemic is an Obama-manufactured crisis, in order to “push the Sebelius nomination through”, is the latest rightwing slant on the whole thing. It’s all a conspiracy.
I don’t think Michael Brown is doing anything these days. Couldn’t Obama just appoint him? I’m sure he’d do a heck of a job.
I guess the loonballs thought that one would have more traction than the other one I read yesterday, which was that Obama himself gave the flu to Mexico. I was laughing too hard to continue reading to see what the freepers thought that would accomplish.
Right wingers, gotta love 'em, they’re so entertainingly stupid. Maybe they ought to have some tea and lemon parties. Or tea and chicken soup parties. (Argh, I just gave myself visions of fat, middle-aged right-wing men teabagging a chicken)
Smeghead, I’m chilled, just disgusted at these right-wingers who are all about wrapping themselves up in the flag, screaming about the constitution and America First! but when it comes to anything that will actually, you know, help America and average Americans, they’re not into that concept at all. In fact, they’re downright against it. No compromise, no thought processes at all, just automatic NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. G-NO-P. Party of NO.
This isn’t hindsight, sir. There was money for this in the bill, before an outraged Rockefeller Republican stripped it. There was also money for volcano monitoring in the bill, but fortunately that stayed in there. Fortunately for the people of Alaska, who had an eruption a few weeks ago. When someone says “See? You shouldn’t have stopped us from doing eminently reasonable stuff that would have mitigated this very foreseeable event.”, that’s not hindsight.
Maybe all it will take is for a pregnant woman to get sick and die of swine flu, along with her precious fetus (though she’d probably have to be at least American, if not Caucasian-American, rather than Mexican. Just to stay on the safe side).