Both State and local officials gathered in New Brunswick to plan New Jersey’s defense response the possibility of a swine flu resurgence in the fall.

Public health officials, and emergency management agencies including homeland security have been “looking at” some of the bad assumptions that were made over the previous flu outbreak in New Jersey.

One of the biggest and most incorrect assumption about the H1N1 virus was that it would enter the USA only after it moved through other nations. This couldn’t have been more incorrect. The US was the second country in the long list of countries that was struck.

Another assumption was that the sky is falling. Typical with irresponsible government and media scare tactics. the vast majority of affected individuals experienced only mild illness. This irresponsible reporting gives way to irresponsible and unproductive actions. Nothing ever good comes out of this type of manipulation. The way we handled the Bird Flu was a really good example of ineptness. Need more, let’s take a look at how Katrina was handled.

The media and other people screamed “We can’t get vaccines”. When, in fact, five companies are on course to produce tens of millions of doses of the vaccine by sometime in October. In the “gathering”, the discussions will include which populations are most likely to get priority, what actually makes those populations priority and to find a manageable means to administer and monitor the drugs effects.

Your Money At Work, Literally…
$350 million in federal funds being allocated toward the swine flu response. New Jersey is expected to receive about $10 million.

Some New Jersey residents aren’t too happy. In fact, one unhappy reader to nj.com stated that these officials need to work with the physicians more. That, were they actually working with physicians, they would know that some of the local physicians refused to test for influenza. That they instead, told the patient to go to the local health department. Still other parents were told not to bring the patient into the office. Physicians know their job, their job doesn’t necessarily entail how to handle a pandemic. Physicians need to know what to do if a patient is suspected of having the flu and who to contact.

What do you think of the money being allocated to swine flu response?

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