By Fred Taub
President, Boycott Watch
Those are the words of the CDC, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, not mine. They declared a health emergency over
the swine flu. True, about two hundred people in the U.S. have become sick and
one Mexican infant died, but statistically, those numbers are insignificant in
the U.S. where more than three hundred million people.
CDC emergency declarations have become frequent
since 2005 because of one thing - the CDC does not want to be criticized the
same way President Bush was for a slow federal response to the 2005 hurricane
Katrina response in New Orleans. So, the CDC declares emergencies whenever
possible so nobody calls for their staff to be fired for not doing their job.
In the mean time, they are not serving the public interest by causing panic
either.
In 2007, the CDC issued warnings about the
avian flu, a.k.a. the bird flu, causing much panic in the U.S. while people
were scurrying for inoculations and Tamiflu. In 2008, Boycott Watch reported
how the CDC tomato salmonella scare cost the U.S. economy millions of dollars
by shutting down the tomato industry in the U.S., forcing farmers to let their
tomato crop rot in the field without any substantive evidence of which
tomatoes, if any, where the cause of the breakout. In the end, spinach was
discovered to be the culprit, but not until the tomato industry suffered severe
losses. Then there was the salmonella peanut butter scare which caused panic
and major economic loss as people and businesses threw away all peanut butter
products before the CDC even had a clue as to the source.
Meanwhile, the CDC has issued an emergency swine flu
declaration while telling people not to panic and advocating passing out
surgical masks. The CDC said the emergency had to be declared to allow testing
resources to be used nationwide. Oddly enough, the name Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention alone indicates the government agency should be able to
take action to control and prevent diseases without having to declare
emergencies. That's their job. Hospitals work with the CDC all the time, so
there is no reason to declare an emergency, for which the name alone evokes
fear in the public. Screaming "Don't Panic" along with an emergency declaration
is screaming fire in a crowded movie theater - people panic because there is
nowhere to run.
Here, the proper declaration, if
any, would be to call for an alert. Yes, we should be aware, and yes, washing
hands is always a good health practice, but that is what should be said -
people should always wash their hands, especially after they leave the
bathroom, which unfortunately many people do not do, and many others just do a
quick rinsing of their hands. What these people do not realize or do not think
about is that while they may not care, others may be affected by their
laziness.
To make matters worse, the Vice President
of the United States went on a television news show and said he would not
travel on an airplane right now. Yes, the Vice President of the United States
has issued a panic statement that will undoubtedly hurt the airline and travel
industry for months to come. Meanwhile, the U.S. pork industry is expecting
major losses as well while people avoid pork and ham products produced in the
U.S. under strict government agency supervision.
With so few people are becoming sick, one must wonder why there is a pandemic
declaration, which is defined as a disease which is prevalent throughout the
country, when that is clearly not the case. The answer is the pandemic
announcement is based on computer projection, not actual cases, yet the CDC is
acting as if the pandemic is here and now.
The CDC
is making sure everybody knows who they are in order to justify their
existence, and so nobody can blame them for not responding in time. If CDC
officials are announcing emergencies because they are worried about their jobs,
then it is best to just fire them now. In the mean time, the frequent emergency
declarations will water down the CDC's credibility when and if an actual
significant threat may come up. Yes, the CDC is the little boy who cried wolf.
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