Avian flu coming!! Avian flu coming!! Sec. Leavitt (who seemed to really enjoy his rare day in the sun) suggests that when you plan to buy 3 cans of tuna, buy 4 and put one "under the bed." (That's literally what the man said, put it "under the bed.") When you buy milk, buy a box of powdered milk and put it "under the bed." Give me an f***ing break. A few cans of tuna and boxes of powered milk is to avian flu as duct tape and plastic is to a weapon of mass destruction. If you are going to take "personal preparation" seriously, you need a six month supply of food AND WATER, a fire place and wood to burn, candles. The committed individualist will also want to stockpile personal medical supplies for six months. Stockpiling Tamiflu is a somewhat reasonable personal approach for the powerful and well-to-do but it will undermine society's coping skills. DON"T FORGET THAT you'll also need AN ARSENAL OF GUNS to protect your food, water, fuel, and medication against roving gangs.
Sec. Leavitt didn't mention water, fuel, or weapons--just milk and tuna fish. I take the voice of the "f***-your-neighbor and society individualist" only to make my point. I don't really believe in stockpiling guns.
Have you read Stephen King's novel "The Stand?" People won't die while driving down the road but most of the other fictional concepts would hold reasonably well with a 50% mortality pandemic. Society would break down. Water, power, sewer, news, food, protection, health care, news, and all of the other things you expect from society would fail.
Next to the full scale pandemic, our greatest threat is minor outbreaks accompanied by panic and rioting. Sec. Leavitt, you have contributed in true Repub style to this possibility.
If your neighbor suggested that you think of some ways to help your family survive, I could bear the tuna and powdered milk suggestions. But this advice, coming from our nation's leading public health official, is driving me craze. I suggest that Sec. Leavitt include duct tape his own "under the bed" emergency kit and that he put his duct tape and put in over his mouth and nose while willing his salary to RESEARCH and making a real contribution to avian flu planning.
Mr. Secretary, DO NOT tell me to put a few tins of tuna and powered milk "under the bed." Don't promote childish notions of preparedness. Don't contribute to panic and rioting. Tell me what the UNITED STATES of AMERICA is spending in research and vaccine development. Determine if Tamiflu is effective and, if so, do WHATEVER it takes to stockpile massive stores.
Mr. Secretary, you have contributed only to societal stupidity. If every American (who can afford to stockpile food) puts a few cans of tuna and a few boxes of powered milk "under the bed" it will contribute only to the population of cockroaches in America as well as to the kind of fear that promotes rioting at the first hint of infected birds.