Comments on: Unserious About Flu

By: bangkok oliver

bangkok oliver — Tue, 05 May 2009 21:13:03 +0000

The good news is that we were all worried about so-called bird flu which was a much more dangerous virus, but still a worrying time.

By: maha

maha — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:49:07 +0000

Bonnie — thanks for the testimony.

By: Ian

Ian — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:45:56 +0000

The concensus around work here is that this is just one more in a long line of animal related illnesses that don’t amount to much. Think bird flu and west nile virus.

Not to say this isn’t real … I’m just concerned that when/if ‘the big one’ does come, people won’t pay attention until it’s too late.

Boy who cried wolfy and all that.

-me

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:53:35 +0000

I worked for HHS for 24 years until my retirement in May 2008 in the Washington DC metropolitan area. On the whole, whoever was HHS Sec seldom impacted me at my level until Donna Shalala showed up. Secretary Shalala implemented a quality of worklife program for employees because when she toured all the facilities, she found many offices with “Dilbert” comic strips pasted up in various and sundry places. Her goal was to keep the employees happy enough so we did not feel the need to tape up the current “Dilbert” comic strip. Life did improve during those years and were my most enjoyable of my career.

However, once Bush took office, there were many, many negative changes–along with a lot of vacant top positions. Additionally, those vacant positions were filled by people of the quality of “Brownie” from FEMA. When Mike Leavitt came on board, his staff called a particular Congressman’s office to schedule an appointment with him and Sec. Leavitt. Unfortunately, they seemed to be the only people in DC who didn’t know that that Congressman had died two weeks before they tried to schedule the appointment. It was front page news in all the papers. What an embarrassment! Those last seven years were the worst years of my 31 year career in the Federal Government. I worked for the most stupid people I had ever met; but, they apparently had an in with the Bush crowd so got jobs they were not qualified for. Thus, vacancies now along with Bush people embedded in HHS and good career people like myself who were driven out those years could be very detrimental to the public health function of HHS.

By: joanr16

joanr16 — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:03:45 +0000

Hey, I remember the Great Swine Flu Panic of ‘76. And there are days when it feels like it had to’ve been 1776. But I digress.

I think we all ought to keep politics and finger-pointing out of it, and just pay close attention to limiting exposure to the new virus.

Oh, and this is waaay OT, but could this be the sign of an epidemic of a different sort? Arlen Specter just switched to the Democratic Party!

By: Jack K., the Grumpy Forester

Jack K., the Grumpy Forester — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:42:40 +0000

…actually I’ve been fighting a fruitless, lonely battle trying to point that many of those positions are not, in fact, unfilled, but instead merely have not had a Senate-confirmed appointee installed. Many of them (if not most or all of them) have people serving in those positions in an ‘acting’ capacity and many of those serving in an ‘acting’ capacity (if not most or all of them) are probably just as capable – and maybe more so – than any new Senate-approved nominee coming in from the outside…

I’ve been fighting this little battle because it appeared to me to be a theme that originated in Winger World as a means of pointing out some incapability or failing by Obama. That led directly to Democrats pointing out that most of that “vacancy” problem lay at the clay-like feet of the Republicans, but such a response misses the point that the Federal bureaucracy is a force of nature that adheres to many natural laws. One of them is “nature abhors a vacuum”; no job needing doing – especially at the management level – goes utterly vacant…

By: Bill H

Bill H — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:16:55 +0000

Oops, I sort of missed the “20 other top positions are unfilled.” part. My bad. Still, I think my commemt would have some validity, as the actual work occurs at lower levels. The actual pandemic effort would be CDC in Atlanta which is fully staffed and, I believe, has a current director.

By: Bill H

Bill H — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:11:30 +0000

Those of us who remember the Great Swine Flu Panic of 1776

Not to be unseemly, but just how old are you? You remember something that happened 233 years ago?

On a more serious note; I do rather have to question the HHS being rendered ineffective by not having the Secretary confirmed. That position has very little to do with the day-to-day operation of the department, and the picture of all of the career professionals sitting around helpless waithing for her to tell them what to do just doesn’t scan for me.