Barack Obama declared H1N1 swine flu a national emergency on Friday night, October 23, clearing the way for his health chief to give hospitals wider leeway in how they handle a possible surge of new patients.
With this emergency declaration HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius can waive certain federal laws, allowing hospitals to set up off-site facilities to increase the number of available beds and protect patients who are not infected. White House officials claimed the emergency action did not stem from new dangers the flu poses to the public.
The Washington Post reported that emergency rooms across the country are setting up tents to screen those afraid of having swine flu. None of these patients have required treatment, the Post added.
The declaration of this national emergency seems suspicious from the start. Where’s the emergency? The number of people alleged to have died from the swine flu in the U.S. is only 1,000, a fraction of the 36,000 people who die annually from seasonal flu according to CDC statistics.
James G. Hodge, Jr., Professor of Health Law and Ethics at Arizona State University, stated, “Broader powers of the federal government are now authorized to respond to the emerging outbreak.” Obama’s declaration is “much more than a formality,” he added.
Emergency powers trump the Bill of Rights. Declaring a national emergency immediately gives federal authorities dangerous new powers that can now be enforced at gunpoint, including:
None of this means that federal agents are going to march door to door arresting people at gunpoint if they refuse the vaccine, but they could if they wanted to. Your rights as an American are no longer recognized under this national emergency declaration.
According to the CDC, swine flu infections have already peaked. Peak infection time was the middle of October, where one in five U.S. children experienced the flu. Out of nearly 13,000 suspected flu cases reportedly tested during the week ending on October 17, 2009, only 37 percent tested positive for influenza A, and of those only 70 percent were confirmed as H1N1 swine flu infections.
These figures differ from those reported by CBS news October 21, which stated that although the CDC ordered state labs to stop testing for H1N1 in July, some continued to test and reported that over 80 percent of those experiencing an influenza-like illness tested negative for any flu virus.
“The H1N1 is moving rapidly, as expected,” White House spokesman Reid Cherlin claimed. Schools nationwide are sending students home with permission slips for parents to sign in order for their children to receive both flu vaccines - seasonal and the new H1N1, essentially turning schools into mass vaccination clinics. Likely contraindications such as allergies, a history of seizures, or an active infection are not considered reasons to reconsider participation. Government guidelines for operating such clinics include having a sequestered area for students experiencing adverse reactions.
Meanwhile, hospitals are telling their employees they must take the seasonal and H1N1 jabs in order to keep their jobs, despite the fact that the state of New York had been sued by the Public Employees Federation and a state judge granted a temporary restraining order against mandatory vaccine injections. On October 23, New York State Health Commissioner Richard F. Daines and Governor Patterson announced that public health workers would no longer be required to receive H1N1 flu vaccinations, claiming the decision had nothing to do with the lawsuit but instead was due to New York receiving only 23 percent of their anticipated 120 million doses.
Ironically, Obama’s school-aged daughters will not be injected with the H1N1 vaccine despite one daughter having asthma and considered at risk for H1N1 infection. A recent Consumers Report’s poll claims that two-thirds of U.S. parents will refuse the swine flu shot for their children.