What type of guidelines should the US be using to address the threat of potential global pandemics such as Swine flu? What criteria should be used to determine how limited resources will be allocated and why?
14 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I think the US should use all necessary precautions to avoid a pandemic. If we need to block entrance into the US when if becomes something so big like the flue did in 1918, then I believe that is reason enough to do so. When it comes to allocating resources, everyone should be treated by the government so everyone can have the same treatment. It is necessary to treat and place contagious people on isolation until their illness subsides to avoid a pandemic or to lighten the hit that it will cause. At this time, working in a hospital, I receive routine updates on the swine flu and we are teaching families how to avoid the spread of germs. We are lucky enough now a days to have things like hand sanitizer and antimicrobial and antibacterial soaps. If used correctly, they can help stop the spread of germs. These simple things with the combination of face masks when you are contagious and need to leave isolation will prevent others from getting sick. I believe this is the reason why we are not having the same reactions to the flu as before. If a pandemic hit, I think the government should aready have money set aside to treat such patients. The hospital has teams to deal with global disaster and are prepared for a global pandemic. The government should be ahead of the game and have resources ready for us.
I believe that the US government should take all the necessary precautions with a pandemic situation as the swine flu. It is important that the government and people should be willing to help cooperate with one another in order for it to be a success. Plus when it comes to medical resources and allocations, everybody should be treated regardless of their social status. A situation like the swine flu is serious. From the video that I saw, I learned how important it is to be protected by infectious diseases, and that the government should be quick to take action. If nothing is done, then many people will die just like back in the early 1900’s. I also think that knowledge is imperative when it comes to something such as swine flu. People need to be educated on these things in order to help themselves and the government. If there is no one there to educate us, then how can we protect ourselves as well? I work with a bunch of kids, and ever since the swine flu began, we actually had some kids that have been sick with the flu-like symptoms. We then taught the kids how to efficiently wash their hands for 30 seconds. It’s times like these where we should take precautions of everything now. Also, the US government should hold some meetings on how to deal with the swine flu. From watching the video in class, I was shocked to see how quickly it had spread. From the U.S. all the way across Europe during the war. When that happened, I was kind of worried that it will happen. History has a tendency to repeat itself, and we can not afford to do it again.
I feel that the US has to use all safety measures in order to avoid a pandemic such as the swine flu. For example, advising people to not travel and take the hygienic precautions. If already affected get medical attention as quickly as possible to avoid transmitting it to other people, also by not coming in contact until they are free of the virus. As for allocation, the government needs to update the people on what they need to do. Also treating all contagious people and possibly isolating them from the rest, especially away from children who are more susceptible and have no say on the matter. I also feel that they need to consider what to and not make a bigger deal out of it. Every year lots of people get the flu and unfortunately lots of people die from it. Why is it now being such a big deal? Could it possibly me that for almost 2 years the pharmaceutical company has had financial problems for the low sales in medicine? So what is really the “international level” the virus or the financial crisis? This very much benefits the World Bank and the stock markets. I don’t think its right for them to deceive us. The other thing that I have realized is that this is not much news to me. The bible says that there will be pandemics, and this is not even close to what has yet to come. So there is reason to anticipate even more serious pandemics in the future. I can honestly say I am not worried about the swine flu because God promised blessings, including protection, for those who love and obey Him. "Surely He shall deliver you...from the perilous pestilence… You shall not be afraid...of the pestilence... A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you… No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling" (Psalm 91:3-10). So what can I do? Try to stay in good health by eating right and working out and practice usual safety precautions, because the rest God will solve.
I believe the United States should do everything in their power to contain something like the Swine flu if it develops. This could include quarantining individual people as well as the country. Infected people should be in one place and well people should be in another to avoid the spread of the illness. All transportation in and out of this country would have to stop. This part of the world would essentially be at a dead stop for a while. People with the proper treatment should be able to go in, being protected themselves, by bio hazard suits, or face masks, if necessary and deal with the infected people as necessary. People should be educated on how to protect themselves with things like face masks, how to keep themselves sanitized. I believe everyone should be treated the same, no matter what social or economical status because that is simply the right thing to do. When something like this occurs, social or financial status doesn’t matter. Every human being is the same and therefore has to be treated the same. Some people might be against quarantine but in a situation like this we cannot afford to have another pandemic like what happened in 1918. What needs to be done has to be done and if that means quarantine then everyone is just going to have to accept it for the common good of everyone. But people should understand and be willing to cooperate with whatever the government tells us we need to do. The government should have money and resources already set aside in case this does happen, so when and if it does happen we can be prepared. But I also think that we should not get too ahead of ourselves. This might not even be a big deal, I believe we should be prepared if it does but getting paranoid about it is not going to help the situation either. People are going to be freaking out, going crazy, causing chaos, raiding hospitals, that can’t happen either. This has to be dealt with in a calm yet cautious manner.
I think that the US needs to take the necessary precautions to stop the potential global pandemic such as the swine flu. So far a lot of people such as me are a little confuse about what exactly the swine flu means to us and if it will dangerously spread like the flu did back in 1918. The recommendations that the government have gave us about good hygiene and all the details about the symptoms that the swine flu are really helpful. People need to make sure that they wash their hands the correct way and also make sure that their children are washing their hands as well with soap and water and for the correct amount of time. Kids tend to be dirty and do not properly wash their hands. Additionally one thing that can be done better is to have a place where people can go get checked out if they have symptoms of the flu and have no health insurance or can’t afford a doctors visit. Lots of people have lost their jobs, are losing their homes and are just making ends meet and cannot afford to go to the doctor even when they know that they might have some of the symptoms. It’s really scary to know that some of these people aren’t going to the doctor and being treated. I'm still a little worried about the whole situation but hopefully the knowledge that we have about virus now helps us fight the swine flu better than the way that things were done in 1918.
The United States should use a variety of guidelines to address the threat of possible pandemics such as the Swine flu. The first guideline is to inform the public that there is such a disease in our country, as they did with the Swine flu, without creating a panic. They also should do testing and interviewing to try to find out the epidemiology of the disease, which the CDC is doing right now. The more information they can gather about the disease, the easier it will be to find ways to contain it. Testing kits were sent out, and the stockpiles of anti-viral drugs were prepared to be sent out in a short period of time. Information was given out as to the manner of transmission, and what the public could do to prevent infection. With the death toll being as low as it is, the measures the government has taken has been appropriate for the situation. If the pandemic had proven to be more lethal, more aggressive guidelines and resources should be used, such as quarantine. As we discussed in class, there will always be those who won’t care, and feel that their right to freedom supersedes everything; therefore, it would be an extremely costly proposition to try to quarantine everyone, and not one to be undertaken unless a pandemic is deadly virulent like the 1918 Spanish influenza. Realistically, I don’t know that the world will be able to stop all deadly pandemics. Famine and pestilence seem to be Nature’s way to control the population, whether it be animals or humans.
The guidelines the us should use are first locate and identify the pandemic and inform the populace. That means symptoms, incubation time, spread, origion,etc that sort of thing. Next they should start closing restricting points of major travel new york LA and Chicago just to name a few. Finally full quartine should be enforced if the measures before do not work. As for reasources they should focus on the major travel points areas where lots of people come and go. These places are infection zones that will spread the pandemic. SO you use the reasources there to halt or limit the infection making it so that areas outside the zones are less hit since the carriers are caught in the zones preventing it from getting to the rest of the country. Basically as preemptive action as can be made to lessen infection and carriers as much as possible creating a contracting cycle of infection.
I am a firm believer to be a bit over cautious when it comes to this disease; or any disease that can be transmittable through the air, for that matter. I recently learned a lot about what the government has in place for precautions and actions to fight airborne disease with the research from our round table discussions. The President does have the authority to issue quarantine for a flu that can cause a pandemic as well as many other reasons. I believe that we should take serious precautions in preventing the spread of the H1N1 flu. I would presume that a person that presented with symptoms of the H1N1 flu should contact their doctor to explain their systems and then if necessary come in to have the blood work done to have the patient tested for this strain of flu. Once confirmed that person will need to stay in isolation and any person in contact with them will need to stay in isolation and tested as well. It would be nice to have a specific doctor office to have the testing done so that no others are potentially exposed to the disease. I do understand that the limitation on resources would need to be worked out somehow so we would need to have reinforcements called in to the CDC to keep the testing going and results returned in a timely manner. After all for this type of situation time is of the very essence. It is clear that we all need to be compliant with the rules set for us by the state and federal governments in order for quarantines and isolations to work. We do have those stubborn people who do not want to believe they could be sick and will continue to interact with other people and cause the disease to spread. Therefore we will need to employ the assistance of all the available military and police personnel that we can. It is unfortunate that we may have to put these people at risk to protect our communities, but we need to face the reality. As far as setting criteria, really we just need to take care of each area that the disease presents itself in. It is unfortunate that we will potentially be putting more people at risk by requiring the aid of the local law enforcement and/or military to ensure those affected remain quarantined for the specified length of time. Regrettably, this is just inevitable because as I mentioned before there will always be that one person that is in denial of their sickness and still go to work or school and spread the disease to others. I feel that if we just keep to our isolation requirements the flu will slowly die off and we won’t need to worry about a pandemic.
Since there are no oppositions to what guidelines the US can or can’t use to address the threat of pandemic, any applicable solution should be administered by allocating available resources. Since treating the existing nationally recognized affected individuals take a portion of the resource, blocking or testing any other incoming immigrants will also helps reduce the spread of the pandemic and the preserving of the available resource. Although teaching about the pandemic can help lessen the spread, a more direct action like quarantine should be taken when ever needed. Treating individuals with the pandemic can help but if isolation is necessary, there is no reason why we should be hesitant to proceed. If an individual has been identified as sick, he/she should be kept in hospital for diagnosis. The criteria to which the limited resource is allocated should somehow depend on areas of extreme spread. Since the pandemic doesn’t really discriminate and since it quickly spreads, even though limited, some portion of the source should also be used for all the other areas identified as pandemic threat areas.
I believe that the United States should have precautions regarding the swine flu because we don’t know much about it. We don’t know if it’s going to evolve or not and if it does evolve how it will affect us as one, because it is all over the world. I think that the government should be responsible for their states to have their residents well inform of the swine flu by telling them the symptoms and how to prevent from getting the swine flu. Mothers should be extra careful with their children because one way that people are getting the swine flu is by not washing their hands properly and children tend to just get their hands wet and not wash them probably with soap and the proper time. The government should also watch out for those that can’t afford to go visit the doctor. Because they might be getting the symptoms of the swine flu and they’re not going to the doctor because they don’t have the money to go and if they do get infected by it then we will all get it sooner or later. So I think that the government should take these precautions to keep us all safe.
Swine flue is new and dangerous with no known vaccines to prevent it. The danger associated with the flue is not known yet. Scientists and health care officials through out the country are scrambling to unravel the characters and just how bad this flue virus is. According to World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1400 Mexicans in Mexico contracted the disease and more than 150 had died. In the USA so far, there has been 403 cases reported and the number is rising. The health minster just announced that there could be 700 hundred possible cases in different states and there will be more hospitalization and death expected. Every day more countries report cases and more states are added here in the USA to the number of cases reported. The World Health organization just raised the alert level to 5 which is an imminent pandemic. The USA has certain guidelines already placed in cases like this to prevent the spread of the disease and ultimately prevent the pandemic. The health ministry, the CDC and the Home land security offices are working in collaboration with their perspective state and local officials to deal with the situation. So far the guidelines followed the government has been effective in preventing an out control spread. The government wasted no time to warn the public about the imminent threat and issued an immediate emergency alert. This alarmed the public and made everyone aware of the situation. The health officials also issues to the public by holding news conferences up to how to prevent the flue virus. In some cases where there are known symptoms and cases, schools where closed and people were quarantine. Each time new cases were discovered, the public were made aware including the specific places and times at which they are discovered. There are also guidelines to distribute resources like the Tamiflu antiviral drugs and testing supplies. Of course already existing cases take priority in order to get resources. If there
Are cases already accumulating in some states than others, those states get more resources. Some border states like Texas, California and Arizona Should also get some resources in stand by due to the possibilities that they could get cases come up any minute. The World Health organization has already allocated some resources to countries affected by the flue like Mexico. So it is very crucial for the government to follow the distribution of the swine flue and allocate resources accordingly. Our government did send resources according to immediate and imminent needs. I think things have been going in the right direction as to the handling of the health threat. Due to scarce resources through out the world, containment of the virus is the focus and the government has been prudent in doing just that. I am so satisfied with my government in handling the flue pandemic threat in such a swift way including the effort made to make the public aware and educated.
I f the United states were to experience a threat of global pandemics I think the guidelines should first take into consideration the containment of the American population. Which would consist of immediately shutting down all access of air, sea, and land travel in or out of United States. This would entail the closing of all boarders and airports. Allowing the only transportation of allocating medical supplies via air cargo or trucking with strict policing of cargo and movement of authorized people. The emergency communication stations either broadcasting information via TV stations set up for emergencies, radio and satellite. Clearing all stations so the American public can be informed of the outbreak in a calm but informative manor about the epidemic itself. Report on the symptoms of the virus and to impose a mandatory quarantine for mass populations. Inform all businesses except for those such as power and pump stations to be shut down. The manpower to run essential businesses, to be under surveillance and quarantined as well in the area of need to keep the essentials running. All trained medical help with any medical training to report to hospitals, or wherever needed. Shut Down the public schools, basically areas were large percentages of people would gather. Inform the general population of some measures in keeping the virus from spreading to those who might not have been infected yet . Hand washing sanitizing ext. Setting up check spots for the vaccine to be dispersed at numerous locations in all areas. If and when a vaccine has been found to potentially control the virus the allocation should begin with the medical force first. Allocation of a vaccine would of course be done for our people by need. All the people who are keeping the facilities running and monitoring crew of the virus next .Children and elderly, people with immunity problems, the disabled, and mentally challenged. The inner cities could be allocated medical help or vaccines by area code in order to keep mass populations under control, and then work outwards to less populated areas. I think in America we have the sources to be able to take charge of a influenza outbreak with water for dehydration and just our overall health compared to third world countries. I think it would be the ethical thing to do for all countries of power to allocate a percentage of there medical supplies and vaccinations to try to contain the viruses there as well .It is the under developed countries who will allow the virus to thrive because of lack of hygiene and facilities.
One of the main ethical concerns that the world will continue to face during a pandemic is how to prioritize and triage who will receive the limited medical resources as well as allocate them. Over the decades, prior experiences have helped the world to somewhat devise a response plan, however the resources to back it up and the unknowns of how the virus will unfold along with its mutating abilities make it impossible to eradicate in an effective manner. The citizens of the United States will naturally rely on the government in carrying out their roles and responsibilities in preparing a response to a pandemic that will extend across all levels of government and all segments of society. We do not have any other choice since they are the major stockholders of the stock pile of the vaccines, as well as spending x amount of dollars to make them too. According to health care advisories such as the CDC the basic components of implementing an effective pandemic response plan that are to plan, coordinate, track infected and trail of, use methods of containment, as well as the making of, distribution and the triaging who will get the vaccine and antiviral medications. Most important part of the response is the continuous communications of the progresses or regresses of healthcare emergency response in handling the pandemic. This is all good and dandy and it is an important start but the dilemma that needs to be faced next is how to allocate the limited resources of antiviral medication, healthcare workers and non-pharmaceutical necessities such as ventilators, and hospital beds. Health Care advisories common suggestions of who should have priority in receiving medical resources vary as follows: “1) Priority should be given to individuals that will assure and maintain the infrastructures of society. 2) Priority should be given to individuals that are most likely to contract or spread the disease. 3) Priority should be given to individuals who are more likely to catch the disease, those at greatest risk of influenza complications and who have the best chance of surviving the disease, and/or if the resource was readily available. 4) Priority should be given to people with the more years of life ahead of them and who have the most productive years left to contribute to society especially the younger people since they have the most years left to live. 5) Or priority should be given to individuals on a first-come, first basis.” Now I agree to some extent to all the suggestions because some of them intertwine or at least are interrelated in the fact that they have a role in controlling or stopping the spread of the disease. The first suggestion has a valid point in that if there would be no one making sure we had clean water to drink for example society would develop other illnesses due to a buildup of a reservoir of infectious microbes in the water. The second one holds true of individuals especially healthcare workers that pose the greatest risk in transmitting the contagious disease to other patients for example since they take care of multiple patients with declined and susceptible immune systems for opportunistic microbes to take advantage of them. The main reason why is who is going to take care of everyone, if there is no one the disease will continue to spread. The 3rd has a valid point in regards to the fact if it is given to the ones who have the best chance of surviving the disease. Sometimes there is so much a medical professional can do, for example a code team concurs when it’s time to stop giving CPR (ACLS) and or if the medical resource is available to do so. The 4th one I agree to extent that our society needs young people too, especially to ensure continuity of our society in the years to come. The 5th and final option was that everyone is eligible on a first-come, first-serve basis, which I feel is important to the cause in that it could help decrease further spread of the disease in a sense that it will provide a safety net of the infected individuals especially the symptomatic ones not knowing they are a carrier of further spreading the disease and creating a domino effect.
This a hard one. Do we panic or not? yes, but under control which in itself is impossible. Transportation is much faster than it was say 100 years ago, this creates a bigger problem when trying to contain highly contagious illnesses. I don't know how we could effectively contain it when we live in a free market society where while preventing wide spread illness total economic disaster could be the larger down fall. We've seen the effects of ignorance with this Swine Flu aka H1N1, in Egypt they responded by slaughtering pigs, and then you have the idiots from Fox news using the Illegal Immigration and Swine Flu to make it into a conspiracy theory of what ifs! I don't believe over using antibacterial soaps and such will help all that much, maybe make it mutate more. The median age of those infected is 15 years old, and the 2 people who died here in the US were a small child from Mexico and a pregnant woman whose immune system would be more vulnerable due to pregnancy, both living in Texas. I have a lymphatic disorder that would make me more vulnerable, but I haven't been so seriously in 4 years since my diagnoses 4 years ago. I'm not a religious hand washer or hand sanitizer user, i don't want to make myself susceptible to illness by over using these products. what I thank has prevented this flu from being like the one in 1918 is TV, radio, internet, people have access to information and can do good and isolate themselves if they fear its this flu or at least protect themselves from it. Compared to seasonal flu so few people have actually died, so can it really be something to panic yet? I don't know. WHO has said that if it did reach to a point where it could be aggressive and cause death, that nearly 2 billion people could die as a result. 1/3 earths population. So far it doesn't look to be that grim and we have to wait to see if it comes back in a second wave during regular flu season which averages 36,000 deaths a year. I believe that because of 9/11 and the anthrax scare we have created a contingency plan for a global pandemic, so maybe we need to fiddle with it to fit any type of pandemic.
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14 comments:
I think the US should use all necessary precautions to avoid a pandemic. If we need to block entrance into the US when if becomes something so big like the flue did in 1918, then I believe that is reason enough to do so. When it comes to allocating resources, everyone should be treated by the government so everyone can have the same treatment. It is necessary to treat and place contagious people on isolation until their illness subsides to avoid a pandemic or to lighten the hit that it will cause. At this time, working in a hospital, I receive routine updates on the swine flu and we are teaching families how to avoid the spread of germs. We are lucky enough now a days to have things like hand sanitizer and antimicrobial and antibacterial soaps. If used correctly, they can help stop the spread of germs. These simple things with the combination of face masks when you are contagious and need to leave isolation will prevent others from getting sick. I believe this is the reason why we are not having the same reactions to the flu as before. If a pandemic hit, I think the government should aready have money set aside to treat such patients. The hospital has teams to deal with global disaster and are prepared for a global pandemic. The government should be ahead of the game and have resources ready for us.
I believe that the US government should take all the necessary precautions with a pandemic situation as the swine flu. It is important that the government and people should be willing to help cooperate with one another in order for it to be a success. Plus when it comes to medical resources and allocations, everybody should be treated regardless of their social status. A situation like the swine flu is serious. From the video that I saw, I learned how important it is to be protected by infectious diseases, and that the government should be quick to take action. If nothing is done, then many people will die just like back in the early 1900’s. I also think that knowledge is imperative when it comes to something such as swine flu. People need to be educated on these things in order to help themselves and the government. If there is no one there to educate us, then how can we protect ourselves as well? I work with a bunch of kids, and ever since the swine flu began, we actually had some kids that have been sick with the flu-like symptoms. We then taught the kids how to efficiently wash their hands for 30 seconds. It’s times like these where we should take precautions of everything now. Also, the US government should hold some meetings on how to deal with the swine flu. From watching the video in class, I was shocked to see how quickly it had spread. From the U.S. all the way across Europe during the war. When that happened, I was kind of worried that it will happen. History has a tendency to repeat itself, and we can not afford to do it again.
I feel that the US has to use all safety measures in order to avoid a pandemic such as the swine flu. For example, advising people to not travel and take the hygienic precautions. If already affected get medical attention as quickly as possible to avoid transmitting it to other people, also by not coming in contact until they are free of the virus. As for allocation, the government needs to update the people on what they need to do. Also treating all contagious people and possibly isolating them from the rest, especially away from children who are more susceptible and have no say on the matter. I also feel that they need to consider what to and not make a bigger deal out of it. Every year lots of people get the flu and unfortunately lots of people die from it. Why is it now being such a big deal? Could it possibly me that for almost 2 years the pharmaceutical company has had financial problems for the low sales in medicine? So what is really the “international level” the virus or the financial crisis? This very much benefits the World Bank and the stock markets. I don’t think its right for them to deceive us. The other thing that I have realized is that this is not much news to me. The bible says that there will be pandemics, and this is not even close to what has yet to come. So there is reason to anticipate even more serious pandemics in the future. I can honestly say I am not worried about the swine flu because God promised blessings, including protection, for those who love and obey Him. "Surely He shall deliver you...from the perilous pestilence… You shall not be afraid...of the pestilence... A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you… No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling" (Psalm 91:3-10). So what can I do? Try to stay in good health by eating right and working out and practice usual safety precautions, because the rest God will solve.
I believe the United States should do everything in their power to contain something like the Swine flu if it develops. This could include quarantining individual people as well as the country. Infected people should be in one place and well people should be in another to avoid the spread of the illness. All transportation in and out of this country would have to stop. This part of the world would essentially be at a dead stop for a while. People with the proper treatment should be able to go in, being protected themselves, by bio hazard suits, or face masks, if necessary and deal with the infected people as necessary. People should be educated on how to protect themselves with things like face masks, how to keep themselves sanitized. I believe everyone should be treated the same, no matter what social or economical status because that is simply the right thing to do. When something like this occurs, social or financial status doesn’t matter. Every human being is the same and therefore has to be treated the same. Some people might be against quarantine but in a situation like this we cannot afford to have another pandemic like what happened in 1918. What needs to be done has to be done and if that means quarantine then everyone is just going to have to accept it for the common good of everyone. But people should understand and be willing to cooperate with whatever the government tells us we need to do. The government should have money and resources already set aside in case this does happen, so when and if it does happen we can be prepared. But I also think that we should not get too ahead of ourselves. This might not even be a big deal, I believe we should be prepared if it does but getting paranoid about it is not going to help the situation either. People are going to be freaking out, going crazy, causing chaos, raiding hospitals, that can’t happen either. This has to be dealt with in a calm yet cautious manner.
I think that the US needs to take the necessary precautions to stop the potential global pandemic such as the swine flu. So far a lot of people such as me are a little confuse about what exactly the swine flu means to us and if it will dangerously spread like the flu did back in 1918. The recommendations that the government have gave us about good hygiene and all the details about the symptoms that the swine flu are really helpful. People need to make sure that they wash their hands the correct way and also make sure that their children are washing their hands as well with soap and water and for the correct amount of time. Kids tend to be dirty and do not properly wash their hands. Additionally one thing that can be done better is to have a place where people can go get checked out if they have symptoms of the flu and have no health insurance or can’t afford a doctors visit. Lots of people have lost their jobs, are losing their homes and are just making ends meet and cannot afford to go to the doctor even when they know that they might have some of the symptoms. It’s really scary to know that some of these people aren’t going to the doctor and being treated. I'm still a little worried about the whole situation but hopefully the knowledge that we have about virus now helps us fight the swine flu better than the way that things were done in 1918.
The United States should use a variety of guidelines to address the threat of possible pandemics such as the Swine flu. The first guideline is to inform the public that there is such a disease in our country, as they did with the Swine flu, without creating a panic. They also should do testing and interviewing to try to find out the epidemiology of the disease, which the CDC is doing right now. The more information they can gather about the disease, the easier it will be to find ways to contain it. Testing kits were sent out, and the stockpiles of anti-viral drugs were prepared to be sent out in a short period of time. Information was given out as to the manner of transmission, and what the public could do to prevent infection. With the death toll being as low as it is, the measures the government has taken has been appropriate for the situation. If the pandemic had proven to be more lethal, more aggressive guidelines and resources should be used, such as quarantine. As we discussed in class, there will always be those who won’t care, and feel that their right to freedom supersedes everything; therefore, it would be an extremely costly proposition to try to quarantine everyone, and not one to be undertaken unless a pandemic is deadly virulent like the 1918 Spanish influenza. Realistically, I don’t know that the world will be able to stop all deadly pandemics. Famine and pestilence seem to be Nature’s way to control the population, whether it be animals or humans.
The guidelines the us should use are first locate and identify the pandemic and inform the populace. That means symptoms, incubation time, spread, origion,etc that sort of thing. Next they should start closing restricting points of major travel new york LA and Chicago just to name a few. Finally full quartine should be enforced if the measures before do not work.
As for reasources they should focus on the major travel points areas where lots of people come and go. These places are infection zones that will spread the pandemic. SO you use the reasources there to halt or limit the infection making it so that areas outside the zones are less hit since the carriers are caught in the zones preventing it from getting to the rest of the country. Basically as preemptive action as can be made to lessen infection and carriers as much as possible creating a contracting cycle of infection.
I am a firm believer to be a bit over cautious when it comes to this disease; or any disease that can be transmittable through the air, for that matter. I recently learned a lot about what the government has in place for precautions and actions to fight airborne disease with the research from our round table discussions. The President does have the authority to issue quarantine for a flu that can cause a pandemic as well as many other reasons. I believe that we should take serious precautions in preventing the spread of the H1N1 flu. I would presume that a person that presented with symptoms of the H1N1 flu should contact their doctor to explain their systems and then if necessary come in to have the blood work done to have the patient tested for this strain of flu. Once confirmed that person will need to stay in isolation and any person in contact with them will need to stay in isolation and tested as well. It would be nice to have a specific doctor office to have the testing done so that no others are potentially exposed to the disease. I do understand that the limitation on resources would need to be worked out somehow so we would need to have reinforcements called in to the CDC to keep the testing going and results returned in a timely manner. After all for this type of situation time is of the very essence. It is clear that we all need to be compliant with the rules set for us by the state and federal governments in order for quarantines and isolations to work. We do have those stubborn people who do not want to believe they could be sick and will continue to interact with other people and cause the disease to spread. Therefore we will need to employ the assistance of all the available military and police personnel that we can. It is unfortunate that we may have to put these people at risk to protect our communities, but we need to face the reality. As far as setting criteria, really we just need to take care of each area that the disease presents itself in. It is unfortunate that we will potentially be putting more people at risk by requiring the aid of the local law enforcement and/or military to ensure those affected remain quarantined for the specified length of time. Regrettably, this is just inevitable because as I mentioned before there will always be that one person that is in denial of their sickness and still go to work or school and spread the disease to others. I feel that if we just keep to our isolation requirements the flu will slowly die off and we won’t need to worry about a pandemic.
Since there are no oppositions to what guidelines the US can or can’t use to address the threat of pandemic, any applicable solution should be administered by allocating available resources. Since treating the existing nationally recognized affected individuals take a portion of the resource, blocking or testing any other incoming immigrants will also helps reduce the spread of the pandemic and the preserving of the available resource. Although teaching about the pandemic can help lessen the spread, a more direct action like quarantine should be taken when ever needed. Treating individuals with the pandemic can help but if isolation is necessary, there is no reason why we should be hesitant to proceed. If an individual has been identified as sick, he/she should be kept in hospital for diagnosis. The criteria to which the limited resource is allocated should somehow depend on areas of extreme spread. Since the pandemic doesn’t really discriminate and since it quickly spreads, even though limited, some portion of the source should also be used for all the other areas identified as pandemic threat areas.
I believe that the United States should have precautions regarding the swine flu because we don’t know much about it. We don’t know if it’s going to evolve or not and if it does evolve how it will affect us as one, because it is all over the world. I think that the government should be responsible for their states to have their residents well inform of the swine flu by telling them the symptoms and how to prevent from getting the swine flu. Mothers should be extra careful with their children because one way that people are getting the swine flu is by not washing their hands properly and children tend to just get their hands wet and not wash them probably with soap and the proper time. The government should also watch out for those that can’t afford to go visit the doctor. Because they might be getting the symptoms of the swine flu and they’re not going to the doctor because they don’t have the money to go and if they do get infected by it then we will all get it sooner or later. So I think that the government should take these precautions to keep us all safe.
Swine flue is new and dangerous with no known vaccines to prevent it. The danger associated with the flue is not known yet. Scientists and health care officials through out the country are scrambling to unravel the characters and just how bad this flue virus is. According to World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1400 Mexicans in Mexico contracted the disease and more than 150 had died. In the USA so far, there has been 403 cases reported and the number is rising. The health minster just announced that there could be 700 hundred possible cases in different states and there will be more hospitalization and death expected. Every day more countries report cases and more states are added here in the USA to the number of cases reported. The World Health organization just raised the alert level to 5 which is an imminent pandemic. The USA has certain guidelines already placed in cases like this to prevent the spread of the disease and ultimately prevent the pandemic. The health ministry, the CDC and the Home land security offices are working in collaboration with their perspective state and local officials to deal with the situation. So far the guidelines followed the government has been effective in preventing an out control spread. The government wasted no time to warn the public about the imminent threat and issued an immediate emergency alert. This alarmed the public and made everyone aware of the situation. The health officials also issues to the public by holding news conferences up to how to prevent the flue virus. In some cases where there are known symptoms and cases, schools where closed and people were quarantine. Each time new cases were discovered, the public were made aware including the specific places and times at which they are discovered. There are also guidelines to distribute resources like the Tamiflu antiviral drugs and testing supplies. Of course already existing cases take priority in order to get resources. If there
Are cases already accumulating in some states than others, those states get more resources. Some border states like Texas, California and Arizona Should also get some resources in stand by due to the possibilities that they could get cases come up any minute. The World Health organization has already allocated some resources to countries affected by the flue like Mexico. So it is very crucial for the government to follow the distribution of the swine flue and allocate resources accordingly. Our government did send resources according to immediate and imminent needs. I think things have been going in the right direction as to the handling of the health threat. Due to scarce resources through out the world, containment of the virus is the focus and the government has been prudent in doing just that. I am so satisfied with my government in handling the flue pandemic threat in such a swift way including the effort made to make the public aware and educated.
Miriam -
Global Pandemics
I f the United states were to experience a threat of global pandemics I think the guidelines should first take into consideration the containment of the American population. Which would consist of immediately shutting down all access of air, sea, and land travel in or out of United States. This would entail the closing of all boarders and airports. Allowing the only transportation of allocating medical supplies via air cargo or trucking with strict policing of cargo and movement of authorized people. The emergency communication stations either broadcasting information via TV stations set up for emergencies, radio and satellite. Clearing all stations so the American public can be informed of the outbreak in a calm but informative manor about the epidemic itself. Report on the symptoms of the virus and to impose a mandatory quarantine for mass populations. Inform all businesses except for those such as power and pump stations to be shut down. The manpower to run essential businesses, to be under surveillance and quarantined as well in the area of need to keep the essentials running. All trained medical help with any medical training to report to hospitals, or wherever needed. Shut Down the public schools, basically areas were large percentages of people would gather. Inform the general population of some measures in keeping the virus from spreading to those who might not have been infected yet . Hand washing sanitizing ext.
Setting up check spots for the vaccine to be dispersed at numerous locations in all areas.
If and when a vaccine has been found to potentially control the virus the allocation should begin with the medical force first. Allocation of a vaccine would of course be done for our people by need.
All the people who are keeping the facilities running and monitoring crew of the virus next .Children and elderly, people with immunity problems, the disabled, and mentally challenged. The inner cities could be allocated medical help or vaccines by area code in order to keep mass populations under control, and then work outwards to less populated areas. I think in America we have the sources to be able to take charge of a influenza outbreak with water for dehydration and just our overall health compared to third world countries. I think it would be the ethical thing to do for all countries of power to allocate a percentage of there medical supplies and vaccinations to try to contain the viruses there as well .It is the under developed countries who will allow the virus to thrive because of lack of hygiene and facilities.
One of the main ethical concerns that the world will continue to face during a pandemic is how to prioritize and triage who will receive the limited medical resources as well as allocate them.
Over the decades, prior experiences have helped the world to somewhat devise a response plan, however the resources to back it up and the unknowns of how the virus will unfold along with its mutating abilities make it impossible to eradicate in an effective manner. The citizens of the United States will naturally rely on the government in carrying out their roles and responsibilities in preparing a response to a pandemic that will extend across all levels of government and all segments of society. We do not have any other choice since they are the major stockholders of the stock pile of the vaccines, as well as spending x amount of dollars to make them too. According to health care advisories such as the CDC the basic components of implementing an effective pandemic response plan that are to plan, coordinate, track infected and trail of, use methods of containment, as well as the making of, distribution and the triaging who will get the vaccine and antiviral medications. Most important part of the response is the continuous communications of the progresses or regresses of healthcare emergency response in handling the pandemic. This is all good and dandy and it is an important start but the dilemma that needs to be faced next is how to allocate the limited resources of antiviral medication, healthcare workers and non-pharmaceutical necessities such as ventilators, and hospital beds. Health Care advisories common suggestions of who should have priority in receiving medical resources vary as follows: “1) Priority should be given to individuals that will assure and maintain the infrastructures of society. 2) Priority should be given to individuals that are most likely to contract or spread the disease. 3) Priority should be given to individuals who are more likely to catch the disease, those at greatest risk of influenza complications and who have the best chance of surviving the disease, and/or if the resource was readily available. 4) Priority should be given to people with the more years of life ahead of them and who have the most productive years left to contribute to society especially the younger people since they have the most years left to live. 5) Or priority should be given to individuals on a first-come, first basis.” Now I agree to some extent to all the suggestions because some of them intertwine or at least are interrelated in the fact that they have a role in controlling or stopping the spread of the disease. The first suggestion has a valid point in that if there would be no one making sure we had clean water to drink for example society would develop other illnesses due to a buildup of a reservoir of infectious microbes in the water. The second one holds true of individuals especially healthcare workers that pose the greatest risk in transmitting the contagious disease to other patients for example since they take care of multiple patients with declined and susceptible immune systems for opportunistic microbes to take advantage of them. The main reason why is who is going to take care of everyone, if there is no one the disease will continue to spread. The 3rd has a valid point in regards to the fact if it is given to the ones who have the best chance of surviving the disease. Sometimes there is so much a medical professional can do, for example a code team concurs when it’s time to stop giving CPR (ACLS) and or if the medical resource is available to do so. The 4th one I agree to extent that our society needs young people too, especially to ensure continuity of our society in the years to come. The 5th and final option was that everyone is eligible on a first-come, first-serve basis, which I feel is important to the cause in that it could help decrease further spread of the disease in a sense that it will provide a safety net of the infected individuals especially the symptomatic ones not knowing they are a carrier of further spreading the disease and creating a domino effect.
This a hard one. Do we panic or not? yes, but under control which in itself is impossible. Transportation is much faster than it was say 100 years ago, this creates a bigger problem when trying to contain highly contagious illnesses. I don't know how we could effectively contain it when we live in a free market society where while preventing wide spread illness total economic disaster could be the larger down fall. We've seen the effects of ignorance with this Swine Flu aka H1N1, in Egypt they responded by slaughtering pigs, and then you have the idiots from Fox news using the Illegal Immigration and Swine Flu to make it into a conspiracy theory of what ifs! I don't believe over using antibacterial soaps and such will help all that much, maybe make it mutate more. The median age of those infected is 15 years old, and the 2 people who died here in the US were a small child from Mexico and a pregnant woman whose immune system would be more vulnerable due to pregnancy, both living in Texas. I have a lymphatic disorder that would make me more vulnerable, but I haven't been so seriously in 4 years since my diagnoses 4 years ago. I'm not a religious hand washer or hand sanitizer user, i don't want to make myself susceptible to illness by over using these products. what I thank has prevented this flu from being like the one in 1918 is TV, radio, internet, people have access to information and can do good and isolate themselves if they fear its this flu or at least protect themselves from it. Compared to seasonal flu so few people have actually died, so can it really be something to panic yet? I don't know. WHO has said that if it did reach to a point where it could be aggressive and cause death, that nearly 2 billion people could die as a result. 1/3 earths population. So far it doesn't look to be that grim and we have to wait to see if it comes back in a second wave during regular flu season which averages 36,000 deaths a year. I believe that because of 9/11 and the anthrax scare we have created a contingency plan for a global pandemic, so maybe we need to fiddle with it to fit any type of pandemic.
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