Disingenuous Headlines
# 256
And Today’s winner is . . .
U.S. ready to face flu crisis -- almost
More vaccine and coordination among governments is needed, a security official says.
By Richard Clough, Chicago TribuneDecember 19, 2006
WASHINGTON — The White House on Monday said it had met most of its early goals as it prepared to deal with a flu pandemic, but added that significant steps still must be taken to implement an effective strategy.
Homeland Security Advisor Frances F. Townsend told reporters that the federal government had made "significant progress," but needed to coordinate with local, state and foreign governments to effectively fight a global health crisis. "Preparedness is a shared responsibility," she said.
http://tinyurl.com/y9kuog
Anyone who simply skims the headlines, or reads the first paragraph or two of this news article, will come away with a warm squishy feeling about our level of preparedness for a possible avian flu pandemic. After all, according to the White House, we’ve made `significant progress’ and have `met most of our early goals’.
For those who continue to read undaunted, in paragraph five we are told that:
Vaccination is key to the federal government's efforts to combat a pandemic . . .
It isn’t until the reader reaches the 8th paragraph, roughly halfway through the article, that we get this little gem.
Townsend said the government had stockpiled 3 million doses of vaccine that it hoped could be used against a possible pandemic flu strain, and it expected to have an additional 5 million by the end of 2007.
So, according to the Editor of the L.A. Times, we are almost ready for a flu pandemic (reporters, remember, don’t write the headlines), yet we learn by reading the article that we have only 3 million doses of a pre-pandemic, poorly matched vaccine for the H5N1 avian flu virus. And if given another year’s grace, we could have another 5 million doses of, once again, a poorly matched vaccine.
Well, I don't know about you, but I certainly feel better.
As of today, 1 person in 100 could be vaccinated in this country. And a year from now, 1 person in 37 could win the inoculation lottery.
Problem solved.
Or at least, as the headline says; Almost.
By setting their goals low enough, the Feds have managed to meet a number of targets, and can report success. At least this time, they had enough sense not to unfurl a `Mission Accomplished’ banner behind Townsend as she gave her report yesterday.
And as long as a pandemic doesn’t actually happen, I'd have to agree that we’re in really, really good shape here.
