DHS Sets Guidelines For Possible Swine Flu Quarantines Mass. Senate approves pandemic flu prep bill: The new Senate version would allow the public health commissioner — in a public health emergency — to close or evacuate buildings, enter private property for investigations, and quarantine individuals. World flu alert goes higher; Mexico plans shutdown: Mexico took even more drastic action to squelch a swine flu epidemic, ordering a suspension of private business activity and non-essential federal government activities, as the World Health Organization ratcheted up an alert, warning that "all of humanity" is threatened. Swine Flu Devastates Mexico's Tourism Industry: The airports are empty. The beach you could have to yourself. The hotel staffs are washing their hands every half-hour when they're not sanitizing the doorknobs. Peru suspends flights to and from Mexico: Peru suspended from Thursday all flights to and from Mexico over the ongoing flu epidemic, in a decision that Prime Minister Yehude Simon described as "painful but necessary." Swine flu spreads to Netherlands: The case was reported hours after the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that the world is on the brink of a pandemic, saying "all humanity is under threat". UN says Egypt pig cull real mistake: Clashes were reported in Khanka, 25km north of Cairo, with pig farmers setting up road blocks and smashing the windscreens of veterinary services' vehicles as they sought to take people's pigs away. Will pandemic be mild, or kill millions?: Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's acting assistant director-general, said that swine flu appeared very similar to normal seasonal flu, a disease that is rarely fatal for healthy adults but can kill the elderly and infirm. - Chan acknowledged that the disease may well cause more discomfort than death, noting that many patients infected in the United States have recovered on their own and without medicine. U.S. Commerce Department: U.S. economy worst in 50 years: It's official. The United States is mired in its worst economic downturn in half a century, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Wednesday. Data released by the department show that the U.S. economy shrank by 6.1 percent during the first three months of the year – a full percentage point worse than what analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had been predicting. Chrysler to File for Bankruptcy: U.S. officials had offered Chrysler's secured lenders $2.25 billion in cash if they would agree to writedown the $6.9 billion in secured debt that the company owed. But a small group of hedge funds refused the 11th-hour deal, forcing an imminent bankruptcy. U.S. March Consumer Spending Fell More Than Forecast: Purchases decreased 0.2 percent after a 0.4 percent gain in February that was larger than previously estimated, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Incomes fell for the fifth time in the last six months.
Anyone violating a quarantine order can be punished by a $250,000 fine and a one-year prison term.
By Declan McCullagh
A Defense Department planning document summarizing the military's contingency plan says the Pentagon is prepared to assist in "quarantining groups of people in order to minimize the spread of disease during an influenza pandemic" and aiding in "efforts to restore and maintain order."Continue
Health scares enable media-hungry doctors, public health officials and drugs companies to benefit by manipulating fright. Continue
Thursday, 30 April 2009
A Panic Stoked in Order to Posture and Spend:
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