H1N1 Pandemic: Pentagon Planning Deployment of Troops in Support of Nationwide Vaccination

The epidemic that never was: Policy-making and the swine flu scare

According to CNN, the Pentagon is "to establish regional teams of military personnel to assist civilian authorities in the event of a significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, according to Defense Department officials."

"The proposal is awaiting final approval from Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The officials would not be identified because the proposal from U.S. Northern Command's Gen. Victor Renuart has not been approved by the secretary.

The plan calls for military task forces to work in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. There is no final decision on how the military effort would be manned, but one source said it would likely include personnel from all branches of the military.

It has yet to be determined how many troops would be needed and whether they would come from the active duty or the National Guard and Reserve forces.

Civilian authorities would lead any relief efforts in the event of a major outbreak, the official said. The military, as they would for a natural disaster or other significant emergency situation, could provide support and fulfill any tasks that civilian authorities could not, such as air transport or testing of large numbers of viral samples from infected patients.

As a first step, Gates is being asked to sign a so-called "execution order" that would authorize the military to begin to conduct the detailed planning to execute the proposed plan.

Orders to deploy actual forces would be reviewed later, depending on how much of a health threat the flu poses this fall, the officials said." (CNN, Military planning for possible H1N1 outbreak, July 2009, emphasis added)

The implications are far-reaching.

The decision points towards the militarization of civilian instituions, including law enforcement and public health. The Pentagon is already planning on the number of troops to be deployed in the case of a pandemic. A nationwide vaccination program is already planned for the Fall. The pharmaceutical industry is slated to deliver 160 million vaccine doses by the Fall, enough doses to vaccinate more than half of America's population.

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Restaurants: 22nd Consecutive Month of Traffic Declines in June

This statistic doesn't look so good. 22 consecutive months of traffic declines. Peacenik, Peacenik's self, doesn't go out to restaurants as much as Peacenik used to. And Peacenik has noticed that traffic seems to be off when Peacenik does go out. Bad weather, the economy, low consumer confidence, social distancing, stale menus, debt, fear of crime....lots of things could be sinking restaurant traffic. Peacenik will try and boost the Guelph restaurant index this weekend. Peacenik will collect all the loose change lying around Peacenik's basement apartment, and Peacenik will go out at least once. Peacenik will do Peacenik's part. Peacenik encourages you to do your part. Have a good long weekend.



by CalculatedRisk on 7/31/2009 10:10:00 AM

Note: Any reading below 100 shows contraction for this index.

From the National Restaurant Association (NRA): Restaurant Industry Outlook Remained Uncertain In June as Restaurant Performance Index Declined for Second Consecutive Month

The restaurant industry’s economic challenges continued to persist in June, as the National Restaurant Association’s comprehensive index of restaurant activity declined for the second consecutive month. The Association’s Restaurant Performance Index (RPI) – a monthly composite index that tracks the health of and outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry – stood at 97.8 in June, down 0.5 percent from May and its 20th consecutive month below 100.

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Kansas: what a great place to put a lab full of incredibly infectious cattle virus

Lets see. Mad Cow disease, which still makes Peacenik hesitate, before Peacenik eats a steak or hamburger. And Peacenik remembers the pictures of all the burning animals in the U.K. after the last big outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease. And H1N5, bird flu, is still mutating in poultry factory farms, and wild bird flocks around the world. And is pork safe to eat now that H1N1, swine flu, is pandemic? Is it safe? Is it safe? Why not put a level 4 Lab in the middle of creationist Kansas? It's safe. Isn't it?


Foot and mouth disease funeral pyre

Posted on: July 29, 2009 7:25 AM, by revere

When the Bush Administration awarded a construction grant to put a Level 4 laboratory in Galveston, Texas to work on the most dangerous biological agents, a lot of people, including we here at Effect Measure, thought it was pretty stupid siting. Isn't Galveston open to Gulf hurricanes? Wasn't it the site of one of the most devastating storm floods in US history? Then came Hurricane Ike. It didn't seem that a hazardous agents lab could be more stupidly sited than Galveston (see here and here). That was an error in judgement on our part.

The thing about a lot of agents used in Level 4 labs is that while they are extremely dangerous if you get infected with them (Ebola is an example), most of them aren't that contagious. There may be no cure and no vaccine for them and they may be highly virulent, but they aren't that transmissible (see our post on these terms from the other day). There are some viruses that are incredibly transmissible, however. One is foot and mouth disease (FMD). This doesn't usually infect humans but it is devastating to livestock. The US lab that researched FMD was on an island (Plum Island off of Long Island, NY). That's a good precaution, because FMD has a history of getting out of even highly secure labs and infecting livestock. One of the more likely uses of bioterrorism is economic. The US reportedly has tried to do this to destabilize Cuba. The US denies it.

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Three Good Reasons To Liquidate Our Empire

The rationality of this article resonates with Peacenik. It seems so obvious. It makes sense. But Canada's and America's foreign policy isn't driven by rationality. Canada is going to help pacify the Pashtuns? Then Canada is going to rebuild their infrastructure? (While Canada's infrastructure falls apart). Then Canada is going to insure civil liberties for women, and education for everyone? (While Canada's education system implodes). Is Canada going to insure that everyone in Afghanistan gets a swine flu vaccination? Probaby. Are Canada's, and America's, priorities all screwed up? Of course. Read Chalmers Johnson's historical summary of Afghanistan. What the fuck is Canada doing there? And why? Bring the troops home now.


Afghanistan

by Chalmers Johnson

However ambitious President Barack Obama's domestic plans, one unacknowledged issue has the potential to destroy any reform efforts he might launch. Think of it as the 800-pound gorilla in the American living room: our longstanding reliance on imperialism and militarism in our relations with other countries and the vast, potentially ruinous global empire of bases that goes with it. The failure to begin to deal with our bloated military establishment and the profligate use of it in missions for which it is hopelessly inappropriate will, sooner rather than later, condemn the United States to a devastating trio of consequences: imperial overstretch, perpetual war, and insolvency, leading to a likely collapse similar to that of the former Soviet Union.

According to the 2008 official Pentagon inventory of our military bases around the world, our empire consists of 865 facilities in more than 40 countries and overseas U.S. territories. We deploy over 190,000 troops in 46 countries and territories. In just one such country, Japan, at the end of March 2008, we still had 99,295 people connected to U.S. military forces living and working there -- 49,364 members of our armed services, 45,753 dependent family members, and 4,178 civilian employees. Some 13,975 of these were crowded into the small island of Okinawa, the largest concentration of foreign troops anywhere in Japan.

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Statistical Deceptions

punditman says...While Peacenik grows increasingly uneasy about the safety of a swine flu vaccine, punditman turns his gaze to the supposed "economic recovery" with equal skepticism. As always, Paul Craig Roberts sorts through the haze.

How Fake is the "Recovery"?

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Last week on NPR a professor in the Sloan School of Management at MIT explained that what is really at stake in the health care bill is the US government’s ability to borrow. In other words, the bill is about cutting health care costs, not about providing hard-pressed Americans with health care.

The professor said that if we didn’t get health care costs under control, in 30 years the US government would not be able to sell Treasury bonds.

It is not at all clear that the Treasury will be able to sell its debt instruments in 30 months, and it has nothing to do with health care costs. The Treasury debt marketing problem has to do with two back-to-back US fiscal year budgets, each with a $2 trillion deficit. The size of the US deficit exceeds in these troubled times the supply of world savings available to fund the US government’s wars, bailouts and stimulus plans. If the Federal Reserve has to monetize the Treasury’s new borrowings by creating demand deposits for the Treasury (printing money), America’s foreign creditors might flee the dollar.

The professor didn’t seem to know anything about this and gave Washington 30 more years before the proverbial hits the fan.

One looks in vain to the US financial media for accurate economic information. Currently, Wall Street, the White House, and the media are hyping a new sign of economic recovery--”surging” June home sales. John Williams at shadowstats.com predicted this latest reporting deception.

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Guillain-Barre Syndrome after Influenza Vaccination - More Lessons from 1976

In the recent past Peacenik has said that Peacenik would take a swine flu vaccine if and when it is ready. After reading this article Peacenik is saying that Peacenik will do some more research on a given vaccine before getting vaccinated. Peacenik can't ignore the controversies surrounding vaccines. And Peacenik doesn't trust the big pharma companies. Would they rush a vaccine to market just to cash in? Would they market a vaccine without testing it fully? They've done it before. Peacnenik hopes there will be informed unbiased people keeping the public aware of the issues in the inevitable vaccination panic to come. Will those people be politicians? Probably not. Will those people be in the media? Probably not.

by: SusanC
Mon Jul 27, 2009 at 19:45:18 PM EDT


The 1976 vaccine was correlated with an increased incidence of GBS, which, according to a recent study described earlier, may be due to molecular mimicry, between the HA molecule and human gangliosides, proteins that permeate our nervous system.

Ideally one would want to repeat the study and confirm the findings, at least, but we are in a pandemic, and tptb are in a rush to provide vaccines for millions of people. In the absence of further data, is there anything we can learn, even tentatively?

If HA is indeed a biological mimic, it could account for the very small but increased incidence of GBS after flu vaccines in general, and the 1976 one in particular. The effect of biological mimicry is, by definition, dependent on how closely the molecules are similar. To the extent that different HAs from different flu viruses have slight differences in conformation, they would probably have varying degrees of mimicry, such that vaccines made from these HAs may therefore have varying ability to induce GBS. Which is compatible with the varying incidence of GBS reported after seasonal flu vaccinations in different years. (see Haber 2004, Guillain-Barré Syndrome Following Influenza Vaccination)

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Scott Horton Interviews Juan Cole

punditman says...
There is an unspoken rule that permeates all mainstream broadcasts and most intellectual discourse: namely, we in the West always fight the "bad guys." In fact, we often hear military officials and clownish politicians talk about going after "bad people," and celebrating when we kill them.
How stupid is this paradigm? Are we living in a giant batman movie or what? Never mind that we may be killing innocent Pashtun tribesmen and their families in far away regions that few people can pronounce. Or we may be killing people that we used to support. But never mind these inconvenient truths; we call anyone who opposes us "Taliban," or "militants" or "extremists" or "insurgents" or, wait for it..."al Queda."
The script goes something like this: We "good guys" may be occasionally misguided though our intentions are pure, and though we may be experiencing total confusion and "mission creep" in the Af-Pak War, we are on the "good side" of history. Yet history suggests that we are no better or no worse than any previous colonial force. And we are having a really tough time pretending otherwise as we try to figure out what to do about being knee deep in the big muddy. Juan Cole understands this. Listen to him, for he is wise.

Juan Cole, author of Engaging the Muslim World, discusses the origin and meaning of the Taliban, the conflicting messages Obama and the U.S. military give on why staying in Afghanistan is a good idea, the benefits of an “Egypt solution” billion dollar yearly payoff to stabilize and allow withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s low popular support and territorial control.

MP3 here. (30:17)

(courtesy antiwar.com)

"Recession's Over, Recovery Underway": What's Missing in Action

Peacenik has been consistent in Peacenik's belief that the economy is still in big trouble. But the TV pundocracy has been unrelenting in declaring all is well. This article by Charles Hugh Smith is a nice summary of why all the good news may just be a smokescreen. But a smokescreen for what? A smokescreen for whom? Peacenik sees through the smokescreen. Peacenik sees the biggest transfer in history of wealth from the taxpayer to the corporate elite continuing unabated. Aided and abetted by our political and financial leaders.


U.S. economy

by Charles Hugh Smith

The mainstream media is gleefully hyping "the recession is over, the recovery is underway." Nice, except for everything that's missing in action.

"The recession is over, the recovery is underway." Exactly what will be driving this fabulous "recovery"? Let's check in on the usual forces which have powered previous recoveries:

1. Autos/vehicles: missing in action (MIA). Annual sales have plummeted from 17 million vehicles a year to about 9 million a year, and the U.S. probably contains about 30 million surplus/lightly used vehicles ( a number snagged from economist David Rosenberg's latest report). Modern vehicles can easily last 15-20 year, so the "need" to replace vehicles is rather low. Actual "necessary" replacement might require as few as 5 million vehicles a year.

With unemployment at 16%, assets down by $10 trillion and the FIRE economy (finance, real estate and insurance) in disarray, where does anyone think the consumer borrowing firepower will come from to finance an extra 8 million vehicles a year?

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Thousands Of China Steel Workers Clash With Police

Peacenik takes note of stories like this one about the Chinese factory executive being beaten to death. In France the modus operandi was to kidnap executives. Peacenik is against violence. Will this type of violence come to North America? Or has the North American worker been so brainwashed that they are unable to act? 30 years of brainwashing will do that to you. So laid off North American auto workers sit around complaining about union workers banking sick days, rather than complain about multimillion dollar bonuses being paid to corporate executives...with taxpayer money. Universal health care? CPP? Old age pensions? Fair wages? Environmental protections? That stuff is for commies.

AGAINST TAKEOVER DEAL

.

Some 30,000 disgruntled Chinese steel workers clashed with riot police in protest over a takeover deal, resulting in the death of an executive from another steel company, a human rights group said.

News that Beijing-based Jianlong Steel Holding Company would buy a majority stake in state-owned Tonghua Iron and Steel Group triggered Friday's protest, which also led to 100 people being injured, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said on its website.

Discontent over inequality and unemployment amid the economic downturn has triggered social frustration in China, with many cases of riots by angry citizens. Friday's clash happened in the northeast province of Jilin.

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Boiling The Frog: Nuclear Optimism Hides True Costs Till It's Too Late

Peacenik remembers all the advertising about heating your house for pennies a day. Now of course electric furnaces are an albatross for anyone trying to sell a house that has one. And all that cheap hydro? Taxpayers are on the hook for billions. Peacenik thinks those costs are cleverly hidden as legacy costs on Peacenik's hydro bill.

So now the world is facing peak oil. And hydro generated electricity is all tapped out. And natural gas is running out. So the Dick Cheneys of the world want nuclear energy. But the Dick Cheneys of the world want the nuclear industry to be fully subsidized by the taxpayer and ratepayer. The numbers don't add up. Peacenik is stocking up on solar lights so that Peacenik will still be able to read when the lights go out. What are you doing?

by Craig A. Severance



There is a well-known story about how to boil a frog. If you try to throw a frog into a pot already boiling, he'll jump out. However, put a frog into a pot and slowly raise the temperature -- and you get frog legs for dinner.

The nuclear power industry seems to be pursuing this strategy, slowly releasing ever higher cost estimates for new nuclear power plants. If the public does not realize the true costs of a new nuclear plant, the industry can obtain political support for the Federal loan guarantees it needs. After the taxpayers are on the hook and a nuclear project is already underway, the full costs will become clear.

At that point, however, it may be too late for taxpayers and utility ratepayers to jump out.

The Frog Jumps: The Ontario Story. Last week the Ontario government put plans to build 2 new next-generation reactors on hold, after it received bids "more than three times higher than what the Province expected to pay", according to a story in the Toronto Star. The only "compliant" bid -- one where the supplier would be sufficiently at risk if costs exceeded the amount quoted -- was reportedly a $26 billion quote from Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd, equal to roughly $10,800 per kW. (If this sounds familiar, recall my January 2009 study estimated a new nuclear project would most likely cost approximately $10,500/kW).

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