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Pandemic response plan: let the elderly, the sick, and the poor die

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The Bush-Cheney administration’s Department of Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have collectively set guidelines that recommend—in the event of a “pandemic” or mass crisis—that the elderly, the sick, the severely injured, and the poor will be denied life-saving medical treatment.
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17 responses // Pandemic response plan: let the elderly, the sick, and the poor die

  • wow.
    good plan.


    *^&%@&^%@#$*&^%@$#
    recommended by  Marilynn_Murray
    stephenthomson
  • I don't like the idea of people being denied health care, but I would say that this is a logical plan. If you had enough medicine to help one person, who would you try to save:
    1. The man in his mid 60's
    2. A middle-aged man with a heart condition
    3. A guy in his early 20's with no serious physical conditions.

    This is written for a "bubonic plague" with extremely limited supplies type scenario. It's just another extension of survival of the fittest.
    BleachedBlind
  • Sad as it is, choices will have to be made...I'm probably a bit older than the average audience here, so let me say It's been nice sharing ideas with you all.

    Peace, Jimmy
    jimmyp
  • The gov. can make all the plans they want, I have faith in the american people that they wont let the ederly, sick, and poor die.
    riverdeer
  • well , in the event of this kind of catastrophe , it would be ideal if everyone would pay more taxes , contribute time and money to humanitarian causes , open their homes to refugees , etc. to insure that there's no discrimination , but this is not an ideal world .
    malathion
  • Brings to mind the extermination of the Jews as not being good enough to live. Disgusting plan. When do they release the germs?
    Marilynn_Murray
  • this reminds me of the other "plans" the Bush Administration is so good at concocting.

    like the plan after invading Iraq. (none)

    and the plan to fight global warming. (way too little, obnoxiously late)
    stephenthomson
  • Errrr, the AP article mentioned nothing about poor people being excluded. You just made that up.

    You also didn't mention that this was a discussion about what to do in a worst case scenario in which supply and services was not available to all.

    Also, elderly in this case means _above 85 years old_. Injured means _gunshot wounds or other severe forms of trauma_ and sick means various different terminal or severely detrimental disorders that vastly affect the quality and longevity of life.

    The creators of the program ALSO mention that they are not proud of this list. But they have to face the reality that in a situation where there is limited supply it is not a wise decision to save people who are at a very high risk of dying.

    Look, I'm no fan of Homeland Security. I HATE them. But this is just incorrect information.
    Saladin
  • and why would there be limited supply of treatment? because nothing is being done now to prepare. all our money is going into Iraq.

    "Welcome to Planet Stupid."
    stephenthomson
  • It's a plan of action, not a plan for a specific event.

    If the bubonic plague were to come back tomorrow, _there is no way_ we COULD be prepared. That is what this plan is for.

    To be more specific by the way, our money goes to the DOD. If you think Iraq is a waste of money, don't dig deeper. Iraq is peanuts compared to how much is wasted annually on big fucking toys the military likes to play with.
    Saladin
  • The point would be a pandemic or crisis. If we knew what disease or event was coming, then we could prepare. Tell us stephen, what exactly should we be preparing for instead of fighting the war?
    BleachedBlind
  • More often than not they know well in advance before it gets here. They are able to get flu vaccine because of that. In the case if germ warfare it is a known germ, like the plague.
    Marilynn_Murray
  • Isn't that what doctors call triage? It happens every time in crisis situations.

    "For a typical inpatient hospital triage system, a triage physician will either field requests for admission from the ER physician on patients needing admission or from physicians taking care of patients from other floors who can be transferred because they no longer need that level of care (i.e. intensive care unit patient is stable for the medical floor). This helps keep patients moving through the hospital in an efficient and effective manner.

    This triage position is often done by a hospitalist. A major factor contributing to the triage decision is available hospital bed space. The triage hospitalist must determine, in conjunction with a hospital's "bed control" and admitting team, what beds are available for optimal utilization of resources in order to provide safe care to all patients. A typical surgical team will have their own system of triage for trauma and general surgery patients. This is also true for neurology and neurosurgical services.

    The overall goal of triage, in this system, is to both determine if a patient is appropriate for a given level of care and to ensure that hospital resources are utilized effectively."

    The sad fact has always been throughout history that evolution is rough on the individual but that's what it takes for the species

    The problem seems to be when the priorities in triage get skewed by other factors than what is best for all the patients as a whole.

    When what's best for the bottom line of the hospital accountants or the profits of the insurance companies is given more weight than what's best for the health of the patients that's where the triage system fails.
    Argon18
  • maybe we should be preparing vaccines for the H5N1, or any other viral strand thought to be elusive and dangerous, instead of buying military toys and continuing a dumb expensive war at the direction of our neanderthal president.
    stephenthomson
  • No maybe about it. That is exactly what we should do. I'm thinking that maybe we should bring all our troops home and stay here. It seems that we can't play nice and not many like us.
    Marilynn_Murray
  • This seems fairly on par with the actions that the Bush administration has been doing since it stole the election in 2000, Systematically removing health care and government systems for what they deem as "undesirables."

    I would hope that we could see beyond this and give help to everyone.
    Silkwerm

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