Swine Flu Is Coming, Swine Flu Is Coming

I keep my distance from both

Today's NY Times confirms what I suspected: "Swine flu is spreading rapidly, but the virus appears no more virulent than a seasonal flu virus. If current trends continue, it will kill or hospitalize fewer people than would be harmed in a normal flu season." My holistic doctor told me not to take the shot because it has dangerous mercury levels and doesn't significantly decrease the likelihood of catching it and it doesn't make the symptoms significantly less virulent. My "normal doctor" recommends it and said he's taking it himself; he was told to by whoever he listens to, although he offered me no scientific reason for getting one. Now, had the Republicans been in charge I wouldn't have even had to make a decision since there would have been no flu shots available.

The declaration last week that the epidemic is a kind of national emergency reminds me of a vote taken on June 16, when the House passed a supplemental appropriations bill with $2 billion for "pandemic flu preparedness and response capacity." Only 5 Republicans joined the Democrats, passing it 226-202. They don't believe that this kind of thing is within the provenance of government. In fact, their ritual obstructionism is harming flu season preparedness in another way as well. They are blocking the confirmation of Regina Benjamin as Surgeon General. Of course, they are blocking all kinds of Obama nominations, especially in the Judiciary and the Justice Department. But Benjamin was already unanimously approved, on October 7, by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. So what's the problem?

A GOP stall on all Health and Human Services nominees has left the department without a surgeon general during a period of a global flu pandemic, prompting the HHS secretary to call for Senate action.

Regina Benjamin, the surgeon general nominee, “is ready to be voted on in the Senate, and we would just strongly urge the United States Senate” to act, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said during an MSNBC interview Friday in which she discussed the department's response to the spread of the H1N1 virus.

President Barack Obama on Saturday declared the H1N1 outbreak a national emergency.

“We are facing a major pandemic, we have a well-qualified candidate for surgeon general, she’s been through the committee process. We just need a vote in the Senate,” Sebeilus said. “Please give us a surgeon general.”

Benjamin was unanimously approved by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Oct. 7, but Senate Republicans are holding up all HHS nominees over a so-called gag order on insurance companies that have been critical of Democratic efforts to reform health care.

“We’ve not received any recent calls from the administration about their nominee,” a senior Republican aide said. “There won’t be any time agreements for confirmation of HHS nominees until their actions have been fully reviewed.”

At issue is an investigation of insurance companies by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a division of the HHS, which announced the probe last month after a letter surfaced from Humana to seniors critical of the Senate Finance Committee’s health care bill.

CMS officials charged that the letter contained misleading information, a claim Republicans have disputed.

“We believe this hold is irresponsible,” a HELP Committee aide said. “Everyone agrees Regina Benjamin is abundantly qualified and clearly needed to fill this position.”
Benjamin is the only HHS nominee on the executive calendar awaiting Senate confirmation.

More Beltway game-playing by the Republicans that put people's health and safety in jeopardy for their narrow partisan bullshit.

The Most Prominent Conservative-Versus-Moderate Republican Primary Campaign In The Country

Like John McCormack in the far right Weekly Standard, I'm cheering for the conservative, "Jeb Bush protégé," as McCormack so helpfully describes him, Marco Rubio. That's because I want to see progressive Democrat Dan Gelber as the next senator from Florida, a way to give that important state a powerful voice and brilliant critical thinker in the upper house, something that has been sorely missing as we look back over a parade of corrupt hacks and rubber stamps-- on both sides of the aisle.

We covered Rubio's declaration last Tuesday and remarked on Dan Gelber, who was the Democratic Minority Leader of the House when Rubio was Speaker, welcoming him to the race:

"I have a lot of respect for Marco Rubio. He has never broken away from his very conservative principles, even after the course of history has proven many of their ideas to be wrongheaded. The GOP is in the midst of a fight for its basic heart and soul, not to mention its very relevance in the American political discussion, and I know Marco will be a loud and effective voice for those who believe that the direction of the last eight years was the correct one and for the small percentage of Floridians and Americans who believe that a massive shift to the right is the best medicine for what ails America."

I doubt the Weekly Standard would disagree-- except for the "wrongheaded" aspersion. McComack, heart aflutter, is obviously smitten with the "fresh-faced charismatic Cuban American" evangelical extremist and he sees him as the Republicans' Barack Obama. Most Americans are celebrating Obama's cautious steps towards reclaiming U.S.-Cuba policy for the State Department-- and taking it out of the hands of a gang of wealthy, corrupt and, of course, right-wing gangsters (and their sons) who have kept the U.S. from normalizing relations with one of our closest neighbors for decades. But not Rubio.

[H]e addressed the College Republicans and Students for a Free Cuba at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Cuba, he said, presents us with "an opportunity just 90 miles off our shores to defend and stand up for the constitutional and Founding principles of this country."

Rubio called the U.S. embargo "our last and only leverage point" for negotiating Cuban freedom with a successor regime. He added, "I wish we could do in China what I hope we'll do in Cuba, but we can't. There are geopolitical realities."

The students-- a sympathetic audience-- were wowed by the speech, delivered without notes. "I think we just saw the future president of the United States!" exclaimed one undergrad leaving the event. "I just wanted to say thanks... for bringing us some hope in the GOP," another student told Rubio.

Maybe he can go fight it out with Lincoln Diaz-Balart, who also has pretensions for becoming the president of a post-Castro Cuba. That's the only presidency-- other than of the Miami Dade Cuban-American Chamber of Commerce-- Rubio is likely to ever get a chance to vie for. and he won't get a chance to vie for that either. I called my friend Reese Erlich, one of this country's experts on Cuba-America relations and author of the incredible new book, Dateline Havana. He isn't as impressed with Rubio as McCormack is.

Marco Rubio represents the last gasp of the ultra-rightists who want to tell Cubans how to live their lives. Why is it that Republicans favor small government, except when it comes to imposing US power on other countries?

Rubio and some mainstream Democrats argue that the US must pressure Cuba to uphold democracy and human rights. They ignore the history of US support for every two-bit dictator that came to power in Cuba from 1901-1959. If the US was so concerned about democracy, why did it recognize Fulgencio Batista’s military government one day after his 1952 coup?

Cuba has plenty of problems, but that’s for Cubans themselves to resolve. When people like Rubio insist on maintaining the embargo, it only strengthens the widespread belief in Cuba that the US seeks to overthrow their government and restore the ultra-rightist Miami Cubans to power.

Few Americans have been aware of the specifics of how right-wing Cubans-- led by extremists like the Diaz-Balarts and Rubio-- have directed U.S. policy towards the island nation right off our southern coast. When Colin Powell's top aide was asked to assess the threat from Cuba to U.S. security said the U.S. military didn't think Cuba was a threat at all. Let me quote from Dateline Havana:

"Wilkerson participated in war games designed to plan United States response to various Cuban crises. The military's nightmare scenario consisted of political instability in Cuba leading to a large-scale assault by Cuban Americans on the island. Wilkerson said, "What really struck me about the Cuban contingencies when we exercised and gamed was that it didn't turn into any kind of U.S. force presence in Cuba. It turned into a cordoning off Florida to keep Cuban Americans with various small arms... from invading Cuba."

And there is historical precedent for the U.S. military's concerns about out-of-control violent rightists attacking Cuba. They've done it before-- and far more than most Americans are aware, and sometimes with over U.S. help. Were you frightened in the last few weeks about swine flu? No one knows how it started but it scared a lot of people in this country.

In 1971, during the Nixon administration, U.S. agents introduced swine fever virus into Cuba. Cuba had to slaughter over 500,000 infected hogs. The virus originated in Africa and had been unknown in Cuba before the outbreak. Newsday revealed that a CIA-trained Cuban exile had been given the swine virus at Ft. Gulick in the U.S.-controlled Panama Canal Zone. U.S. operatives gave him instructions to deliver the virus to Cuba. Even though the CIA denied involvement, the article showed a clear link to U.S. clandestine efforts. In 1977, the Washington Post confirmed, "The CIA had a program aimed at Cuban agriculture, and since 1962 Pentagon specialists had been manufacturing biological agents to be used for this purpose."

In 1981, during the Reagan administration, some 350,000 Cubans were infected with type II dengue virus, which produces potentially deadly fevers. According to Cuban sources, 158 people died, 101 of whom were children. The virus had not been known anywhere in the world and had been created in a laboratory. In 1984, a leader of Omega 7, a terrorist exile group in Miami, admitted in court to spreading the dengue virus.

Rightist fanatics would like nothing more than to insert a "fresh-faced charismatic" young extremist like Rubio into the American political system.

McCormack sees mainstream conservative Charlie Crist as the impediment because Crist is likely to jump into the Florida senatorial race. Recent polls show him thrashing the lunatic fringe Rubio 53-4% in a primary battle and even if Crist decides to not run-- unlikely-- right-wing congressional hacks Connie Mack and Vern Buchanan (each nearly mainstream compared to Rubio) lead him by double-digits. The advantage of a primary with Rubio participating is that it is sure to be bloody. To Rubio Crist isn't obstructionist enough, isn't anti-choice enough, is too pro-environment, isn't in favor of as many anti-working family tax policies as he should be and favors many ideas Floridians like and right-wing maniacs like Rubio, hate. And to Rubio's supporters, Crist is a homo, something the media rarely mentions but something wingers will never stop talking about-- at least en Español.




UPDATE: Outrage-- The Film

I just came back from seeing Mike Roger's movie, Outrage. If Republican voters in Florida see the film, Crist's goose is COOKED. He comes across as such a hypocrite-- and as soooo gay-- that he'd have a really tough time in a closed Republican primary. It'll be interesting to see if Rubio tries to exploit it in some way.

"H-1-N-What? We Can Do So Much Better, People," says our pal Al Kamen, announcing the latest Loop contest

"The media seem to be pretty much sticking with swine flu," Al writes in today's "In the Loop" column, "and that's bad news for the country's 67,000 pork producers." But maybe we just need some swine-friendlier imagery. Like, who would want to bust Porky Pig's chops?

by Ken

It was our Washington Post "In the Loop" pal Al Kamen who clued us in to the e-mail sent out to all Democratic press secretaries by House Ag Committee communications director April Slayton with the "request" to "avoid using a pig in any graphics for the current flu outbreak that you are creating for your website and other media," and in general to avoid use of the pork-unfriendly moniker "swine flu."

The press secretaries may have gotten the message, but the press hasn't, and the public sure hasn't. Quick, what's the appropriate CDC-sanctioned name for the new flu? "N1H1," you say? Oh, that's so close! But I'm afraid you're eliminated. Thanks for playing our game.

"The letter-number thing won't stick," Al insists. "H1N1 is just too cumbersome and wholly lacking in imagery. You can't get the public to focus on, and take measures to prevent, something they can't even remember, let alone visualize."

Loop fans to the rescue, says Al.

It's time for the Loop Name the Flu contest. Yes, simply come up with a better name -- more accurate than swine flu, less wonky than H1N1 -- for the virus. Something that people can remember, that might help remind them to wash their hands regularly, stay home if they have symptoms and so on.

The 10 winners will receive one of those coveted, fine-quality, In the Loop T-shirts.

Details on-site. The deadline is midnight, Wednesday, May 13. As long-time readers know, we take Loop contests seriously. (We want us one of them Loop T-shirts.) Come on, DWT gang, let's get those thinking caps on.

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"Please, no pig graphics!" Then how're you gonna illustrate stories about swine flu . . . er, about H1N1? We've got just the answer!

The new poster boy for H1N1?

In another Loop scoop, Al Kamen has the story in today's Washington Post of how "House Agriculture Committee communications director April Slayton sent an e-mail late Wednesday to all 'Democratic press secretaries'":

"If I could make a request, please avoid using a pig in any graphics for the current flu outbreak that you are creating for your website and other media," she wrote, noting that the current flu outbreak is most properly called "H1N1 flu." The moniker swine flu "suggests that people are getting sick through consumption of pork products, which is not correct." She attached [Agriculture Secretary Tom] Vilsack's statement.

"If you could please try to refrain from using 'swine flu' to refer to the outbreak (and please no pig graphics), this would be extremely helpful as the U.S. tries to maintain international trade and consumer confidence in our nation's swine industry," Slayton urged.

Good luck with that.

So, you need a graphic stand-in for swine? Don't even give it a second thought. (See above... or for those with less imagination, this.) -- Ken


UPDATE

Well, well... look what Ken (and George Harrison) inspired:

Looking for good info on swine flu (and other public health subjects?) Try the blog Effect Measure

Richard Besser, acting director

of the Centers for Disease Control

"One big thing to know was emphasized by Acting CDC Director Richard Besser at the White House briefing yesterday: the influenza virus is highly unpredictable and our certain knowledge of it very scant. If you've seen one flu pandemic, you've seen one flu pandemic."

-- from this morning's Effect Measure post on the swine flu situation
(note: the writer is not suggesting that we are in a pandemic)

by Ken

The swine flu outbreak has a lot of us scrambling for information (here's a link to CNN's video of yesterday's White House press briefing at which the Dept. of Health and Human Services declared a national health emergency), and I confess I wouldn't have known where to turn for good public health info. So I'm pleased now to be able to suggest Effect Measure, which describes itself as "a forum for progressive public health discussion and argument as well as a source of public health information from around the Web that interests the editor(s)."

On-site we get some additional explanation:

The Editors of Effect Measure are senior public health scientists and practitioners. Paul Revere was a member of the first local Board of Health in the United States (Boston, 1799). The Editors sign their posts "Revere" to recognize the public service of a professional forerunner better known for other things.

This morning's entry, for example, "Swine flu: what did you expect?," is an invaluable guide to the questions we're actually asking, and should be asking, even for those of us who don't really know what we mean to ask.

Answers are more elusive, but at least Revere explains why. For example:

Another thing that most people and probably most clinicians expect is that we know a lot about influenza. Perhaps because of the increased scientific interest since bird flu (an increased interest which will pay off handsomely in this outbreak, by the way) we do know quite a bit, but we also now know many of the things we thought we knew about flu, like the main ways it is transmitted from person to person, we don't really know.

In the world of the 24-hour news cycle, it often happens that even the best experts (assuming the news cyclists have any clue who they might be) don't know the answers. At this point there are two quite different approaches to "covering" the event:

(a) You can have genuine experts frame the correct question(s) as intelligently as possible and explain what the limits of our present knowledge are and how that is likely to evolve, or --

(b) You can have robo-anchors with functional IQs lower than their pets' speculate mindlessly, or put their empty heads together for some mindless chat-speculation, or find someone who might actually know something and browbeat that poor soul with "would you say that" questions which then provide the basis for sky's-the-limit extrapolative speculation.

I'll leave it to you to guess which approach Effect Measure takes. Another nice thing about the blog is that it appears to be read by smart people who actually know stuff about the subject(s) and can actually add information in the comments.


THIS IS SO DEPRESSING, AND SO TEDIOUS, BUT YET AGAIN ALL
THE FINGERS SEEM TO POINT AT RIGHT-WING SHITHEADISM

In the days, weeks, and months ahead we're going to learn a whole lot more than we knew or wanted to know about swine flu and flu epidemics and emergency preparedness. Already, alas, it appears that a good deal of what we learn is going to target the know-nothing shitheadism of the slash-and-burn loons of the Right.

Environmentalists have been screaming for years about the public-health menace of the multidimensional public health hazard of those giant animal-growing "factories" in which most of our commercial chickens and pigs are now raised, producing not only sicker and sicker animals, which are therefore shot up with larger and larger doses of antibiotics (further contaminating not just the animals but the already-toxic waste they produce), but also massive sites that are unfit for human habitation and humongous problems of toxic sludge entering local water supplies.

The punchline here is that research into the very problems of swine "culture" was one of the things the witty wags of the Right roundly ridiculed. It was right up there with Governor Booby's hilarious send-up of spending money to study -- can you imagine? -- volcanoes!

Food specialists also point out that our "improved" food-producing technology, introduced in the process of converting what used to be our agriculture industry into the megaworld of agribusiness, has in fact created a dual nightmare, as a result of separating animals from agricultural land. Once upon a time the animals' manure went directly into fertilizer for the crops. Once the two became separated, however, the animal wastes turned into an increasingly unmanageable crisis of toxic-waste disposal, and fertilizing crop-growing land required increasing dependence on dangerous chemicals, still further compounding the risk factor of the food that reaches our markets as well as the toxic-waste disposal problem.


IN THE MATTER OF EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS: OF COURSE
RIGHTIES DON'T BELIEVE IN EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

Then there's the question of how prepared we are to cope with a public-health emergency. On the plus side, at least we no longer have Chimpy the Prez and his team of death-dealing clowns on the job. It is, as we learned during the eight grim years of the Bush regime, with its all-out war on human intelligence in all forms, and above all in the form of science, a root principle of the Loony Right that emergency preparedness is irrelevant to government, and in any event can't be accomplished by government, because government is incompetent. And the Loony Rightists have no trouble proving that government is incompetent when they are the government.

This morning on The Nation's blog The Beat, John Nichols posted an item that begins:

GOP Know-Nothings Fought Pandemic Preparedness
posted by John Nichols on 04/27/2009 @ 08:00am

When House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who has long championed investment in pandemic preparation, included roughly $900 million for that purpose in this year's emergency stimulus bill, he was ridiculed by conservative operatives and congressional Republicans.

Obey and other advocates for the spending argued, correctly, that a pandemic hitting in the midst of an economic downturn could turn a recession into something far worse -- with workers ordered to remain in their homes, workplaces shuttered to avoid the spread of disease, transportation systems grinding to a halt and demand for emergency services and public health interventions skyrocketing. Indeed, they suggested, pandemic preparation was essential to any responsible plan for renewing the U.S. economy.

But former White House political czar Karl Rove and key congressional Republicans -- led by Maine Senator Susan Collins -- aggressively attacked the notion that there was a connection between pandemic preparation and economic recovery.

Now, as the World Health Organization says a deadly swine flu outbreak that apparently began in Mexico but has spread to the United States has the potential to develop into a pandemic, Obey's attempt to secure the money seems eerily prescient.

And his partisan attacks on his efforts seem not just creepy, but dangerous. . . .

Nichols points out that what we have now is by no means a pandemic. However, does anyone believe that that money devoted to pandemic-preparation wouldn't have come in mighty handy right about now?


POSTSCRIPT: THE SHITHEAD RIGHT STRIKES AGAIN -- WHY
IS IT THAT WE DON'T HAVE AN ACTUAL HHS SECRETARY?

HHS Secretary-in-waiting Kathleen Sebelius

Politico reports that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) "has launched an online petition criticizing Republicans for delaying the confirmation of a Health and Human Services secretary in the face of a swine flu outbreak."

The union accuses Senate Republicans of delaying the confirmation of nominee Kathleen Sebelius to “curry favor with extremist outside groups” and depriving the department of leadership as the nation confronts a potential flu pandemic.

“This is simply unacceptable,” the union says on its website. “This disease is spreading as we speak, but right now, a Bush-appointed accountant is running the department. We need an HHS secretary NOW. Sign the petition telling the Senate to vote immediately to confirm Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. If we don't act, the swine flu might just turn into another Hurricane Katrina.”

Senate Democrats attempted to fast-track Sebelius during the first week of April, but Republicans raised objections, saying her nomination needed to follow regular order. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) attempted to schedule a vote Wednesday but was again thwarted.

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