Swine Flu, Is The U.S. Dropping The Ball?

With the news giving us updates of the flue every day we all have to be a little up tight this flu season.  Both my wife and I fall into that so called high risk group, and with everyone else we are told to be patient.  I guess that all we can do, but it does disturb me when I find out that our state is at the bottom of the list for receiving the swine flu vaccine.  It doesn’t disturb me because I haven’t gotten a vaccine.  It disturbs me because it looks like someone dropped the ball.  When it is all over, we as Texans need to find out who dropped this ball because we can ill afford a poor emergency management system for Texas.

As citizens of our state we are doing what we are supposed to do and we are waiting patiently for the vaccine to arrive.  I do not expect it to arrive any faster than it is available.  What I do expect is for state officials in charge of ordering the vaccine to realize the emergency and request maximum doses allotted for this state.

One might say, Jon don’t be greedy.  There are other states out there that need it.   I do not argue with you on that point on need.  My argument is the allotments and the distribution of that need.  There are states that have more vaccine than the outcry is for it.  Then you have Texas that has a terrible need for it and can’t even get started with its vaccine program because we still trying to vaccinate the emergency responders.

One might ask, what is our need for the vaccine?  The total number of cases in the US of H1N1 virus is 44555 officially.  Texas has 5,151 of those cases.  The only state to surpass it is Wisconsin with 6,222 cases.

Texas has had 69 deaths from this virus.  The only states with higher death totals are California 219, Florida 121, and New York 74.  The states that follow these top 4 are at half the level of Texas or much less.

Common sense would say that there would be a prioritization of the vaccine.  One thing that these states have in common is large cities with ports.  I willing to go out on a limb here and say that the normal flu hits harder in these states on a normal basis due to size of the cities in those states and the amount of travel through those cities.

Even though this is a pandemic, nearly one fifth of the official deaths are from the U.S.  There probably multiple reason, for that, one of the reasons being that we have a better way of tracking than some other countries.  Even with that said, it is a huge number.   We have to get our major cities and ports immunized.  People travel out and through the regions.

I always thought we had level headed planners when it came to emergency management.   Now with the mishandling of Hurricane Katrina, seeing firefighters pulled of a California Fire just last week “supposedly” due to finances leaving neighborhoods to burn, and so many other questionable practices it only comes painfully clear that emergency management is ran by bean counters and politicians.

Well get the hell out of the way and let those that know how to run an emergency program do their job.   There will be a time for you to do yours after the crisis.  Politicians are very rarely good crisis managers, that’s why others are put in charge.  Your job is to make sure they have what they need to put a working plan in action.  I also realize that the government reaction to emergency plans normally comes from the state requesting assistance.  When you have a national crisis such as this virus I believe not being a politician, a national emergency can be declared for better organization and distributing of a vaccine.  So a government is not dealing with each individual state’s protocols on distributing a needed drug.   We had over 1,000 deaths now in the United States.  States that need the vaccine are not getting it and again ones that are not in high need are sitting with overstock.  Part of this is the state’s fault.  As a Texan, I want to know who dropped the ball in this state.  As an American I know the US is dropping the ball on distribution of a drug because it could have been handled and distributed according highest risk and hardiest hit first.  But that could only be done if it was a national distribution plan that could have rerouted as needed.   Not leaving the distribution up to individual states and their expertise and running at emergency plan such as this.

When this is over it very well may be another Katrina, because lives could have been saved.  It is not because you can control a disease but it because you do not have the balls or the people in power to run an effective emergency management program.  We Americans should be very worried.

And That’s The Way I See It

© Jonathan S. Brooks

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