The Finch Formerly Known As Gold

13 December 2006

Survival mechanisms

Worried that you didn't have enough to worry about? We should now start sweating public-health disasters:

Half of all U.S. states would run out of hospital beds within the first two weeks of a moderate flu pandemic and 47 states would run out if a bad one hit, according to a report issued on Tuesday.

The report from the Trust for America's Health shows the United States is still poorly prepared for a pandemic, biological attack or similar disaster, despite five years of government warnings and emphasis on the issue.

"I think the public believes that more is being done and that we are better prepared than we are," the group's executive director, Jeffrey Levi, told reporters in a telephone briefing.

Well, we are better prepared, at least in this neck of the woods. On the Trust's ten criteria, only Oklahoma got passing grades for all ten. Kansas got 9; the lowest scores were 4's and 5's.

Dr. Mike Crutcher, commissioner of the Department of Health, cautions that this year's commendable showing is but "a snapshot in time"; there is always work to be done.

Posted at 7:48 AM to Soonerland


a moderate flu pandemic

I've heard of "relative" terms, but in my mind by the time something reaches the level of "pandemic," any useful application of the word "moderate" has been left below the horizon as seen in the rearview mirror.

Not having seen even a mere epidemic that I can recall, I'm inclined to regard even that as beyond the reach of "moderate" in most cases.

An epidemic of hangnails might be an exception...

Posted by: McGehee at 8:36 AM on 13 December 2006

Don't know from disaster preparedness, but that newsOK article has the most maddeningly pointless use of hyperlinks I have ever encountered.

Posted by: Moira Breen at 9:05 PM on 13 December 2006

It's my fault. I once bawled out their erstwhile Web editor for a complete and utter lack of links.

Posted by: CGHill at 9:13 PM on 13 December 2006

And damned if they didn't decide to make you pay for your impertinence.

Posted by: Moira Breen at 9:32 AM on 14 December 2006