[Pepper]

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Former Speaker Newt Gingrich implored the Bush administration and lawmakers on Capitol Hill to heed outgoing Secretary Thompson's dire warning that the United States is at significant risk of a flu pandemic because the nation is not prepared to adequately deal with it.

Secretary Tommy Thompson, in a news conference to announce his resignation, took the opportunity to issue a warning about the threat as well as a threat to our nation's food supply by a terrorist attack.

Gingrich pointed out that while it is highly unusual for an outgoing Cabinet member to make such strong statements about a threat to the nation, Secretary Thompson is in a position to know how serious the threat is. "I have known and worked with Tommy Thompson since he was Governor of Wisconsin. He is a serious person with a tremendous record of accomplishment. His work on welfare reform as governor and as a transformational leader of Health and Human Services speaks for itself," Gingrich said. "Having said that, Thompson's warning about a flu pandemic was his greatest single service to our country."

Gingrich concluded that if Thompson is concerned, than the threat is real. He called on the Congress to meet the challenge of creating a 21st century virtual public health system that can respond to the threat of a pandemic, and suggested starting with hearings so that Members of Congress and the nation can understand the full scale of the threat.

[fuzzychick]

PEPPER, It's amazing what comes out of these guys when nobody has the choak chain attached........I think they better wake up soon....I believe that our gov't knows more than they choose to share with the public. :eek:

[CanadaSue]

What, honest question, does he know about flu? If the answer is: "Not much", what briefings has he been sitting in on that I wasn't invited to? What are they hearing & who from & how recent is this info?

[Pepper]

PEPPER, It's amazing what comes out of these guys when nobody has the choak chain attached........I think they better wake up soon....I believe that our gov't knows more than they choose to share with the public. :eek:


Fuzzychick, this entire flu business, is starting to concern me. First, shortage on flu vac's with the media playing it for all it was worth. Ok, no big deal. Now everyday there is a warning of some type. At first I thought this too was more media hype. Now I am not so sure. My gut instinct, is telling me to watch and be very careful. It is like they are conditioning the sheeple before this thing snow balls.

[CanadaSue]

I'm getting queasy & am not sure why. Maybe it's the lack of solid info.

Look, we're right at the start of flu season - in south east Asia as well. So where are the reports of even plain old human flu strains? None. Nyet, zip & nada. Rien. These nations never did particiapte in flu reporting before H5N1 but I THOUGHT they had been convinced to report to the WHO now. Maybe they are. I for one would sure appreciate the WHO stating once a week or so that some cases of human strains are being reported - no evidence of reassortment or anything else so far.

But there seems to be a vaccum of info. There's certainly no lack of activity. I'm increasingly reading short press blurbs of 2-3 day meetings that I know weren't previously scheduled & putting together some of these meetings can be as complicated as a Presidential road trip. Suddenly all the flu mavins are meeting, we're getting increasingly more serious warnings but nothing on which to base those.

Are they not telling us something? The fatc that so little info is coming out makes me a just a tad paranoid. Nothing from China. Hong Kong isn't even reporting human flu cases - why? Reports to the OIE from the affected areas seem to be later & later & do NOT match what popluar press in those nations is reporting.

I hate feeling like I have a 1500 piece puzzle to put together & pieces are scattered all over a room full of other junk. I KNOW I'm missing pieces. I'm not fond of the CDC for info. EISS for Europe does a good job on their weekly reports as does Canada's national public health sites but I do not like that so little is coming out of Asia or Russia for that matter. Russia is seeing increasingly nasty epidemics every year. A pandemic strain might very well erupt there & we won't know until it flies in.

Watch & wait...

[fuzzychick]

Just read your post, that IS my sentiments exactly... :confused:

[goatlady]

It seems to me a possibility might be China, Russian, WHO are scrambling already to handle what is/has popped up and they probably feel it would do no good to release the incident reports publically at this point, just cause panic. Maybe they are hoping against hope they can contain IT, get a handle on IT, and then release information that is usable? Just a thought in the dark, murkey situation. Maybe WHO and TPTB think the longer they hold off releasing info. the more time the would have to find something to help and also if the info is really bad right now they do not want to be responsible for political, economic, societal upheaval? Off to get more vodka! I've got enough fresh frozen elderberry for about 5 more quarts and I'll probably order some dried this week. I should have enough for the 3 families in my little valley plus nearest daughter and her 2 little ones.