Michael Brown Clone Will Oversee U.S. Response to Avian Flu Pandemic
Michael Brown Clone Will Oversee U.S. Response to Avian Flu Pandemic
“It could kill a billion people worldwide, make ghost towns out of parts of major cities, and there is not enough medicine to fight it,” ABC News reports. It is the avian flu, and if it were to reach U.S. shores, it could be “like having a Category 5 viral hurricane hit every single state simultaneously.”
How fitting, then, that Stewart Simonson, the Bush administration’s assistant secretary for public health emergency preparedness, has a resume “disturbingly reminiscent” to that of disgraced former FEMA chief Michael Brown.
Though Simonson is “now the point man for just about every health emergency that may hit our shores, ranging from anthrax attacks to an avian flu pandemic,” he has no background in medicine, public health, or bioterrorism preparedness. His chief accomplishment seems to be his position from 1995-1999 as legal counsel to former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, who was tapped as President Bush’s first Health and Human Services secretary. Under Thompson, Simonson apparently specialized in “crime and prison policy.”
President Bush has again left Americans dangerously unprepared for a potential disaster. (To push back, join MoveOn’s new campaign calling for Simonson to be replaced.)
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No more brownies!
October 13th, 2005 at 2:10 pmYes, I heard that. Bush could end up being responsible for a vast number of US citizens’ death. It is horrible that the payback of contributions or the outright buddy system of his appointments are more important than our country’s children’s health. THAT is exactly what this means. There is no excuse for that astronomical amount of irresponsibility. It is scary and now, deadly.
Everything that can be done to impeach this monster must be done. I am very concerned about the potential ramifications. This is a truly disastrous error and could fatal.
Thanks repubs for risking our health.
October 13th, 2005 at 2:20 pmScrew the avian flu. We need more boner drugs!
October 13th, 2005 at 2:21 pmI can’t seem to get Steven King’s “The Stand” out of my mind everytime I hear about this very probable pandemic… Good vs. Evil. There are too many similarities. George Bush IS Randall Flagg
October 13th, 2005 at 2:26 pmJust because we have a “JACKASS IN COWBOY BOOTS” in the White House we don’t have to have every DUMBASS he knows in every improtant positions? Do we?? Help me understand.
October 13th, 2005 at 2:30 pmLots of squawkin’ over this bird flu business. If I were Chicken Little, I’d be very afraid.
Will the chickenhawks contract the bird flu virus?
October 13th, 2005 at 2:32 pm#6, No, they’ll be the first to have a ready supply of Tamiflu.
October 13th, 2005 at 2:41 pmFor those who are interested, we did a Progress Report item on Tuesday:
October 13th, 2005 at 2:43 pmPardon, Switzerland.
October 13th, 2005 at 2:48 pmDamn, and apparently I erred with us being 6th. We are much lower. And, now, so am I. sigh
October 13th, 2005 at 2:49 pmIs this thing really true, or is it the latest “Georgie needs to scare the crap out of us so we’ll like him and feel dependent on his ability to protect us?” I’m sure the bird flu exists, but is it really more of a threat now than it was last year? Just askin’…
October 13th, 2005 at 2:52 pmFluie, you’re doing a heck of a job!
October 13th, 2005 at 3:05 pmZookeeper,
I’ve heard conflicting reports from scientists. Apparently this particular flu has been around for “decades”.
I’m also under the impression that vaccines aren’t really the issue now until this particular flu jumps from persom to person (presumably the flu will be different then and require it’s own vaccine).
Bottom line? Is this the guy to tackle these questions?
October 13th, 2005 at 3:06 pmSo far as I can tell, what action the government is taking is to prevent a pandemic, not in making plans on how to respond when a pandemic hits. I blogged some obvious steps to plan for, and noted a Knight-Ridder story that no plans currently exist. It’s quite worrisome, since eventually a pandemic will indeed hit.
October 13th, 2005 at 3:17 pm[...] Oh goodie. The person in the White House in charge of managing the avian flu has a frightening resume: …he has no background in medicine, public health, or bioterrorism preparedness. His chief accomplishment seems to be his position from 1995-1999 as legal counsel to former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, who was tapped as President Bush’s first Health and Human Services secretary. [...]
October 13th, 2005 at 3:17 pmThis is Y2K meets KFC. Overblown crap. I can’t wait until it all just goes away.
October 13th, 2005 at 4:04 pm#14 – Thanks, Brian. My heart skipped a beat just thinking about Georgie handle this problem. Think Katrina…
October 13th, 2005 at 4:06 pmOver coffee this morning, I saw my letter-to-the-editor printed on this very subject.
October 13th, 2005 at 4:18 pmWe should be asking the WH why the inexperienced Simonson is the go-to man for Public Emergency Preparedness. Do they think he absorbed experience through osmosis because he was an attorney for Thompson in HHS? Or was it his experience before that as attorney for AMTRAK? Obviously, Bushie learned nothing from the flap over “his heckuva-job” pal, Brownie.
No. 11, yes, this is a very real threat. Scientists everywhere have been screaming about this for quite a while. The virus itself has spread (through birds) to Europe, and the human kind is cooking in Indonesia, where somewhere between 60 and 100 people have died from it. Make no mistake, guys, IF this virus mutates, we will have a big problem and NO help from our government. Visit the flu wiki.
http://www.fluwikie.com
Peace.
October 13th, 2005 at 5:09 pmThe Administration has prepared our whole country with only 2.3 million doses of anti-viral bird flu medicine (Tamiflu). Just enough for the very rich and influential. How safe do you feel?
October 13th, 2005 at 5:23 pmBush is living up to his usual brain dead ideals for appointing more incompetent wing nuts. You want public health issues taken care of, get an attorney. You want national disasters taken care of hire a horse judge backed by a Israle sympathiser. You want clean air and water hire the previous polluters that use to be fined and monitered. Yep! That’s what this incompetent does and for his next trick along with his appointed distroyer Mr Pombo they have plans to Cut, drill and kill all our parks and prestene areas. Yes folks our parks are in danger along with our wildlife and us. If this bunch has it’s way, we may all be displaced or nuked. We are past the time to get real, we had better hurry up and get them out of office………Blessings
October 13th, 2005 at 5:26 pmI suggest the highly incompetent, Nico, for the any job that does not require too many brain waves. Nico, so quick to smear others, too quick on the trigger, to stupid for follow up!! OK, Nico, ‘fess up – you’re John Podesta’s brother-in-law, aren’t you?? Sharon Cox is your mom, right???
October 13th, 2005 at 5:41 pm“I suggest the highly incompetent, Nico, for the any job that does not require too many brain waves. Nico, so quick to smear others, too quick on the trigger, to stupid for follow up!! OK, Nico, ‘fess up – you’re John Podesta’s brother-in-law, aren’t you?? Sharon Cox is your mom, right???
Comment by mighty aphrodite”
So quick to smear others – funny those words would come from you. I immediately thought of you when I read that. Guess the old ‘projection’ method of propaganda is your latest tool of deception? Smear the other guy by accusing him of ’smears’…
Too bad you’re such an EASY person to see, and such a crappy propagandist. You have to at least TRY to be creative – this one’s just embarrassing to watch…
October 13th, 2005 at 5:51 pmAnd windbag – I never got a response on the whole yacht lie you posted. Something about a ‘democratic’ tax collapsing an industry – when the tax was passed by a REPUBLICAN president, repealed by a DEMOCRATIC president, and involved an industry that HAD ALREADY COLLAPSED BEFORE THE TAX? No response? I’m so amused by this shoddy piece of work on the freepers part that I just have to ask why you don’t continue to defend this embarrassing nonsense? Come on – post some more lies – it’s amusingly pathetic to see such an incompetent display. It surely explains why crony capitalism is so REPUBLICAN – none of you know anything! Bahahaha
What an idiot bitch!
October 13th, 2005 at 5:54 pmAnd we all know you and MrWrong are the same person…
What a desperate little freak show you are…
October 13th, 2005 at 5:55 pmI already responded to Moveon by telling them I’m not falling for another scare tactic.
How many of you eat chicken that is imported from Asia? What a joke.
October 13th, 2005 at 5:59 pmMarie, what paper did your letter appear in.
Ryan, the He/She is also NED. It thinks that It can fool society into believing that bushie has more than a few supporters.
October 13th, 2005 at 6:05 pmAnd notice the very telling bit in the quote (with my emphasis added):
October 13th, 2005 at 6:26 pm“make ghost towns out of PARTS of major cities”
Probably the poor parts, right?
Well, the flu is real, it can definitely be a problem, but not if we vaccinate the poultry handlers… not everyone will need it!
Also – who has a catchy name for the three-headed monster that is Mighty Aphrodite/I-Right-I/Ned? Tedious to have to type all their names all the time… how about Cerberus? Bitch.
How about Medusa – I fear the beast is so hideous he/she would turn anyone into stone who look at it…
October 13th, 2005 at 6:35 pmI say mental case. OOOhhhhhh, how about “multiple” because It has multiple personalities.
October 13th, 2005 at 6:42 pmSusan, the Herald.
October 13th, 2005 at 7:47 pm[...] (via thinkprogress.org) “It could kill a billion people worldwide, make ghost towns out of parts of major cities, and there is not enough medicine to fight it,” ABC News reports. It is the avian flu, and if it were to reach U.S. shores, it could be “like having a Category 5 viral hurricane hit every single state simultaneously.” [...]
October 13th, 2005 at 8:36 pmYou can guess its the young healthy ones who aren’t afraid of the flu, they are that way about all medical matters. The ticking clock usually changes attitude.
October 13th, 2005 at 10:08 pmI’m not that young Jim Beard. I just know a hoax when I see one. Anything the Bush administration says is a lie. Period.
October 13th, 2005 at 10:39 pmHay, Mighty tidy didy, Right, Ned, who ever you are I don’t care about the name calling or you’r implication I am someone here’s mother. That’s what “you people do”. I like the company here and this is, for the most part, progressives exchanging views. You Bushco’s are pretty much all the same and not very important in my view. Atacking others is all “you people know how to do”.I appreciate all the information I have gained and find no need to slam you……Blessings
October 14th, 2005 at 12:30 amSharon,
Freaks like these want to bankrupt the nation.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1011-22.htm
In their twisted world a bankrupted nation won’t be able to afford social programs. This is suicide of the american nation – and these clinically insane NeoCon fools are well on their way to succeeding. And lunatics like MightyBitch is too foolish to realize that only the VERY wealthy and the few lucky are likely to escape the insanity of the collapse this will bring. This is the scarey stuff of REAL revoloutions and economic collapse. But a psycho like her bitchiness gets off on the suffering of others – so she won’t care as to her no one is innocent who disagrees with her. She’s TRULY a terrorist!
October 14th, 2005 at 12:44 amI had read that article Ryan, indeed we are in a mess. What to do next to change this disaster is the question…Blessings
October 14th, 2005 at 1:48 am“My friends, this man may look like an idiot, and he may talk like an idiot, but don’t let that fool you.
October 14th, 2005 at 8:46 amHe IS an idiot.” Groucho
Knight-Ridder has a story this morning on the HHS plan for responding to the pandemic. Story says they’ll unveil the plan on 17 October. I blogged about it here and here. Some points I believe the plan should cover:
1. All city and town administrators (city managers, mayors, councilmen, etc.) notified of steps to be taken in event of pandemic (school closings, closing movie houses, cancellation of events with large public attendance, temporary hospital openings, etc.)
2. Clear (and lengthy) lines of succession for all critical positions of authority–i.e., who succeeds to a position in the event the current holder is incapacitated, dies, or cannot be located. Positions for which such succession must be defined include civil authorities, police chief, health authorities, coroners, fire chief, and the like.
3. Plan of how to keep essential functions operational even when many personnel fall ill–e.g., combining fire stations if there are too few ambulatory firefighters at a station to effectively fight a fire.
4. Communication plan to keep the public informed, control rumors, and forestall panic.
5. Large temporary hospital spaces identified for each city and town.
6. Supplies and equipment for large numbers of patients prepositioned in each city and town, ideally in or near the temporary hospital spaces. The supplies include medications and treatments for opportunistic infections that occur in people sick with the flu–e.g., bacterial pneumonia, meningitis.
7. Health services personnel in each city and town identified and notified of the role they will play in the event of a pandemic.
8. Identification and notification for transportation (vehicles, personnel) to transport the sick and the dead.
9. Identification and notification of sources of temporary nursing assistance, along with prepositioning of training materials and supplies.
10. Identification of morgue spaces and disposal procedures for the (many) dead that will result from a pandemic.
11. Treatment plan for those living in close quarters, where infection is likely: nursing homes, prisons and jails, dormitories.
And so on. We certainly don’t want to be trying to do all this on the fly, after the pandemic strikes and critical personnel are already swamped with work and getting sick themselves.
October 14th, 2005 at 10:14 amJust more incompetence from the Bush administration. Will your community be the next New Orleans? See “Black Ribbon: Truth” at http://www.editorialpaintings.com
October 14th, 2005 at 11:58 am“Just because we have a “JACKASS IN COWBOY BOOTS†in the White House we don’t have to have every DUMBASS he knows in every improtant positions? ”
I think it’s because he probably has a learning disability that makes reading very uncomfortable (almost painful). How does one assess people for a role? Well, the ‘right’ way to do it is to study a list of their accomplishments and credentials, and combine that with a personal face-to-face assessment as well.
However, if you don’t like to read, you’re only gonna go with the face-to-face and gut feel part of it. Now, it would be infeasible for him to meet all potential candidates, so he probably just looks around for someone whose ‘heart he knows’…
Unfortunately, his ability to read people is about on par with his ability to read words.
October 14th, 2005 at 2:56 pmI think most of us would agree that if the avian flu hits the U.S. in any substantial way while Bush is still president, we will see the worst healthcare disaster in the history of the country — with untold numbers dead, possibly leading to the collapse of our economic system, domestic militarization or worse.
Yet, we sit back and wait, helplessly, for this to happen. How is this possible?
October 15th, 2005 at 6:04 pm[...] Is the White House point person for the Avian Flu response another Brownie? According to Think Progress, Stewart Simonson “has no background in medicine, public health or bioterrorism preparedness.” MoveOn.org started a campaign to call for his removal. [...]
October 17th, 2005 at 10:49 pmThe Governors’ Council and Bush have discussed spending a year on planning to contain the population in the event of a pandemic.
What pity:
–both have failed to focus witn anywhere near appropriate priority on devising a vaccine
–our governors and Bush are into flexing their political muscle possibly for the purpose of illustrating/testing the imposition of martial law on citizens and restricting their movement.
–doses have been ordered by this president for only 20 million of the 300 million US population. Should US citizens interpret this action as the president sentencing the vast majority of US citizens deliberately to severe illeness through death by more of his malfeasance in office?
Who is given access to treatments and/or vaccines in the EVENT such a pandemic does take place is inappropriate through suicidal to trust to Mr. Bush or any of his unqualified politican cronies.
Real patriotism is protecting all US citizens–not simply Mr. Bush’s pet cronies. How horrid to think US taxpayer dollare would be used to underwrite the iatrogenocide of the majority of US citizens. How in the name of sanity does this fall in any category but not just cronyism carried to murderous fatality but all the way to treason?
There is no acceptable rationalization for leaving the unqualified Stewart Simonson with his absence of technical medical background/credentials in the position he now holds.
November 1st, 2005 at 10:42 pmI find it fascinating that President Bush is trying to raise money for Avian flu preparedness. Because, as Bush correctly said, Avian flu can only be transmitted from birds to humans at present. The danger is that the Avian flu might mutate into a form that is communicable between humans — in which case we could be looking at an epidemic.
Bush is concerned that Avian flu might evolve. Hmm. Via an Intelligent Designer? Perhaps the Pastafarians are behind this…
November 3rd, 2005 at 8:40 pmmedication…
goodby supervisory?viably nodular gardened whacks birth control pills http://birth-control-pills.metasart.com/ …
January 12th, 2006 at 3:12 am[...] Stewart Simonson, the Bush administration’s “point man for just about every health emergency that may hit our shores, ranging from anthrax attacks to an avian flu pandemic,” has resigned. It’s about time: Simonson had “no background in medicine, public health, or bioterrorism preparedness.” [...]
March 15th, 2006 at 9:13 am