Via Politico.com: Arena Digest: Team Obama and H1N1. One of the debaters is Dr. Greg Dworkin, a longtime Flublogian. His comments:
“It is inevitable that Washington will politicize a public health event, and it’s been a remarkable thing that folks (the public, the press and the politicians) have been as patient as they have been. According to the polls, the public remains patient and, despite headlines to the contrary, continues with confidence in the Obama administration to handle this.
"But the real story behind pandemic flu preparation — something I’ve been involved with professionally for more than five years and which has been considerable on the part of federal, state and local governments, the private sector, faith-based groups and business — goes back to 2005 and the Bush administration, which got the ball rolling with its preparations for a possible H5N1 bird flu pandemic.
"That’s a threat that is still out there, but some of the planning for that turned out to be unsuitable for this. ... Each pandemic has its own characteristics.
"For example, this pandemic is mild enough that the idea of hospitals running out of medicines was prevented by preplanned supply logistics, leaving the outpatient pharmacies at risk for not having enough pediatric Tamiflu because mass dispensing by local public health officials isn’t needed and won’t fill that gap.
"Schools are open, so they cannot be used as alternate care sites or mass-dispensing locations, and school nurses can’t be enlisted to vaccinate the general public.
“...So how big a political problem is this? Not as big as the recent headlines make it out to be. Everyone is aware of the big picture, which mitigates but does not eliminate the frustration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health officials have been both visible and active from the beginning.
"The big mistake, which is acknowledged, is promising more than can be delivered. The deliverables are there, however, even though late, and that’s a different problem than never having the goods in the first place.”
