VERY severely edited. And some snarky
comments dropped in for good measure.
Read full article at link.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091024/...bama_swine_flu

http://tinyurl.com/yl6qekx

President Barack Obama declared the swine flu
outbreak a national emergency, giving his health
chief the power to let hospitals move emergency
rooms offsite to speed treatment and protect
noninfected patients.

(Like some unelected bureaucrat in Washingmachine
DC knows how to run emergency rooms, and
doctors don't.)

The declaration, signed Friday night, comes with the
disease more prevalent than ever and production
delays of the vaccine.

Health authorities say more than 1,000 people in
the United States, including almost 100 children,
have died from the strain of flu known as H1N1,
and 46 states have widespread flu activity.

Administration officials said the declaration was
designed to make decisions easier when they
need to be made. Officials said the move was not
in response to any single development.
(Besides, we wanted the power anyhow.)

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius now has authority to bypass federal
rules when opening alternative care sites, such
as offsite hospital centers at schools or community
centers if hospitals seek permission.
(Oh, yeah, now we're above the law.)

Some hospitals have opened drive-thrus and drive-up
tent clinics to screen and treat swine flu patients. The
idea is to keep infectious people out of regular
emergency rooms and away from other sick patients.
(Did they have federal permission? Got to get
permission before making any decisions!)

Hospitals could modify patient rules - for example,
requiring them to give less information during a
hectic time - to quicken access to treatment, with
government approval, under the declaration.
(That's more like it. Have the government workers
make decisions for your doctors. Like in countries
with socialized medicine.)

It also addresses a financial question for hospitals -
reimbursement for treating people at sites not
typically approved. For instance, federal rules do
not allow hospitals to put up treatment tents more
than 250 yards away from the doors; if the tents
are 300 yards or more away, typically federal
dollars won't go to pay for treatment.

Administration officials said those rules might
not make sense while fighting the swine flu,
especially if the best piece of pavement is in
the middle of a parking lot and some medical
centers already are putting in place parts of
their emergency plans.

The national emergency declaration was the
second of two steps needed to give Sebelius
extraordinary powers during a crisis.
(That's how Hitler came to power. Extra power
in time of crisis.)

On April 26, the administration declared swine
flu a public health emergency, allowing the
shipment of roughly 12 million doses of flu-fighting
medications from a federal stockpile to states
in case they eventually needed them. At the time,
there were 20 confirmed cases in the U.S. of
people recovering easily. There was no vaccine
against swine flu, but the CDC had taken the
initial step necessary for producing one.

"As a nation, we have prepared at all levels of
government, and as individuals and communities,
taking unprecedented steps to counter the
emerging pandemic," Obama wrote in Saturday's
declaration.

He said the pandemic keeps evolving, the rates of
illness are rising rapidly in many areas and there's
a potential "to overburden health care resources."

"Many millions" of Americans have had swine flu
so far, according to an estimate that CDC Director
Dr. Thomas Frieden gave Friday. The government
doesn't test everyone to confirm swine flu so it
doesn't have an exact count. He also said there
have been more than 20,000 hospitalizations.

___

On the Net:

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/update.htm

Government's flu site: http://www.flu.gov/



--
Christopher A. Young
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