Mission Accomplished

Domestic terrorist kills Dr. George Tiller, his clinic shuts down.

The Wichita abortion clinic run by a doctor who was shot and killed will remain closed permanently, his family said on Tuesday.

Dr. George R. Tiller’s clinic was one of the few in the country to provide abortions to women late in their pregnancies, and for decades, women had traveled there from all over the nation and from overseas. It was also the only remaining abortion clinic, even for first trimester abortions, in the Wichita region.

“The family of Dr. George Tiller announces that effective immediately, Women’s Health Care Services, Inc., will be permanently closed,” according to a statement issued on Tuesday morning by the family’s lawyers. “Notice is being given today to all concerned that the Tiller family is ceasing operation of the clinic and any involvement by family members in any other similar clinic.”

Women with catastrophic health issues late in their pregnancies have one less outlet for treatment. And Troy Newman of Operation Rescue is absolutely right: Now, "every kook in the world will get some notion” that they can shut down abortion clinics through murder. It's the "outside" of the inside outside strategy to restrict women's reproductive rights. Women don't actually have a fundamental right to choose their own type of medical care in this country. In far too many states there are only a few abortion providers, and patients have to travel hundreds of miles to find them. In the case of procedures like those practiced by Dr. Tiller, only a handful of states provide them. And not enough doctors are willing to follow Rozalyn Farmer Love and go into the practice. Given the outcome of Dr. Tiller, you can hardly blame them.

We have choice in name only in this country. It harms women, threatens doctors and decreases overall public health. Terrorism has worked.

As The Swine Flu Turns

Let's move from Specter, donkeys and elephants, over to swine flu. We're up to 68 cases in the United States and 98 cases outside of Mexico in the rest of the world. We've seen hospitalization here but not as virulent a sickness as in Mexico, where reports show up to 150 dead. The expert at the WHO said yesterday that the spread of the virus cannot be contained, and now we need to work on mitigating its worst effects. And considering that we're starting to see new cases in new countries, that seems correct.

While the WHO has raised the global pandemic alert, they're also keying in on the source of the outbreak.

In Mexico, where the only related deaths have been reported, state health authorities looking for the initial source of the outbreak toured a million-pig hog farm in Perote, in Veracruz State. The plant is half-owned by Smithfield Foods, an American company and the world’s largest pork producer.

Mexico’s first known swine flu case, which was later confirmed, was from Perote, according to Health Minister José Ángel Córdova. The case involved a 5-year-old boy who recovered.

But a spokesman for the plant said the boy was not related to a plant worker, that none of its workers were sick and that its hogs were vaccinated against flu.

Tom Philpott has been all over this since Friday. The Smithfield farms in Perote are thought to have infected the water supply and the atmosphere. Drinking pig shit will tend to do that. Can we finally have this debate about factory farming?

The latest news is that the LA County Coroner is investigating two deaths that may have resulted from swine flu. Obviously this is concerning, but at the same time, the large majority of strains here have been less virulent, and we have no confirmation on this case in LA.

...It's amusing to hear media types talking about how people should stay home from work if they're sick when nearly half of private-sector workers don't have paid sick days. I'm one of them. As a freelancer, I only get paid if I come to work. So if you want to keep America prepared in the event of an outbreak, you have to set up ways for Americans to be able to stay home from work without threatening their financial livelihood. Not to mention the 47 million without health insurance. This highlights the need for a bigger public health safety net.

...John Barry, author of a great book about the deadly 1918 influenza that killed 670,000 in the United States, has a good piece about where the swine flu will strike next.

Playing Politics With People's Lives

Well that sure was smart.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) was apparently unwilling to be seen as endorsing such "funny" sounding priorities as flu "preparedness" in an economic recovery package. Perhaps in an attempt to prove her fiscal conservative bona fides, Collins repeatedly insisted that (Rep. David) Obey's pandemic preparedness funding did not belong in the bill:

COLLINS: There's funding to help improve our preparedness for a pandemic flu. There is funding to help improve cyber security. What does that have to do with an economic stimulus package? [CNN, 1/31/09]

COLLINS: I think everybody in the room is concerned about a pandemic flu. But does it belong in this bill? Should we have $870 million in this bill? No. We should not. [MSNBC, 2/5/09]

After the funding was stripped, another moderate Republican attempting to appear tough on "unnecessary" spending in the recovery package, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), endorsed Collins' crusade against the pandemic preparedness funding on Fox News:

MS. KELLY: Okay. $780 million for pandemic flu preparedness, in or out?

SEN. SPECTER: Out. Very important projects, I took the lead along with Tom Harkin on some massive funding for pandemic flu, but it belongs in our regular appropriations bill.

The argument for putting flu preparedness in the stimulus was that an outbreak at a time of economic downturn would be devastating, not to mention the fact that anything that spends money to buy anything is stimulus, and the money is gone for state and local public health for flu pandemics:

Hamburg said there is no more pandemic preparedness money in the pipeline for state and local public health. "The $600 million that was made available in December 2005, in the fiscal year 2006 emergency supplemental bill, the last of those dollars went out the door this past August," he said.

In addition to the cutoff of pandemic flu funding, public health agencies have seen their "all hazards" preparedness funding drop about 25% since 2005, Hamburg said.

TFAH and its partners are advocating for another $350 million specifically for pandemic readiness and additional money for other public health emergencies, he said.

There is likely, especially now, to be additional funding in the FY2010 budget, and maybe even an emergency appropriation. But right now, we have no money in the pipeline for flu pandemics, DURING a possible flu pandemic (I don't want to get too hyperbolic, because the severity remains to be seen).

This outbreak is also occurring at a time when we have no Health and Human Services Secretary, thanks to:

The Service Employees International Union has launched an online petition criticizing Republicans for delaying the confirmation of a Health and Human Services secretary in the face of a swine flu outbreak.

The union accuses Senate Republicans of delaying the confirmation of nominee Kathleen Sebelius to “curry favor with extremist outside groups” and depriving the department of leadership as the nation confronts a potential flu pandemic.

“This is simply unacceptable,” the union says on its website. “This disease is spreading as we speak, but right now, a Bush-appointed accountant is running the department. We need an HHS secretary NOW. Sign the petition telling the Senate to vote immediately to confirm Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. If we don't act, the swine flu might just turn into another Hurricane Katrina.”

To Republicans, governance comes last. Winning a cable news debate comes first. The country suffers.

Sign the petition.

Oink

US declares public health emergency for swine flu

Yikes. Haven't followed this closely while up at the CDP convention, but this will be an example of how strained the public health system truly is in this country. We're not prepared for the normal course of events, let alone an emergency.

More when I can digest it.

...Hilarious. Secessionst Gov. Rick Perry, suddenly mindful of the value of the federal government, asks the CDC for help and antiviral medications to potentially deal with a swine flu outbreak.

Half-Measures

The G8 went ahead and set something that sounds like a target to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050. If you read along, however, you realize that this is not a target at all, there are no numbers involved, no clear interim steps, nothing that would bind any member nation.

Environmental campaign group WWF said the leaders had ducked their responsibilities.

"The G8 are responsible for 62 percent of the carbon dioxide accumulated in the Earth's atmosphere, which makes them the main culprit of climate change and the biggest part of the problem," WWF said shortly after the communique was issued.

"WWF finds it pathetic that they still duck their historic responsibility...," the campaign group said in a statement.

Of course you're not going to get that out of the United States, which privately continues to advance a denialist policy based on concealment of the magnitude of the problem. Jason Burnett, the senior adviser in the EPA on climate change before resigning last month, wrote to Barbara Boxer today to reveal that it was the Barnacle, Dick Cheney, who was responsible for deleting Congressional testimony from the CDC on the public health effects of the warming climate, "fearing the presentation by a leading health official might make it harder to avoid regulating greenhouse gases." Last month we learned that the Bush Administration decided not to open an email from the EPA that included conclusions for regulating greenhouse gases as pollutants. So expecting some commitment to solving the problem from these two oilmen is not realistic.

As for Burnett, the whistleblower who sent the letter to Senator Boxer? Well, you can get a sense of which Presidential candidate would make such a commitment when you learn that Burnett has gone to work for Barack Obama.