Entries in Politics and government (199)

Miami International Airport holds pandemic drill

Posted on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 11:04AM by Registered CommenterScott McPherson in , | CommentsPost a Comment

The aviation department of Miami-Dade County, in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and prevention, held a simulation recently to test their pandemic capabilities.

Miami is such a gateway city -- not just to the Caribbean and the Americas anymore.  Daily flights to London, paris, Frankfurt, you name it:  Anything can come through Miami International Airport (and frequently does).

The Miami Herald did a nice job covering the event.  The Herald article is below.

Test drill at Miami International Airport aims to slow pandemics

About 400 people participated in the nation's first pandemic flu exercise at Miami International Airport.

icordle@MiamiHerald.com

What if a deadly global pandemic were sweeping across the world and the United States needed to try to delay its effect on our shores?

For the first time, at Miami International Airport on Wednesday, about a dozen federal, state and local agencies participated in a simulation exercise to review the steps needed to screen international passengers arriving in the face of a severe influenza pandemic.

''It's an opportunity to test the plan, see how it works and what needs to be improved, so that when we need to use it for real we are ready,'' said Christine Pearson, spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

About 400 people participated in the test drill, including about 200 voluntary actors. CDC, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation led the effort.

In the 20th century, the nation faced three influenza pandemics, in 1918, 1957 and 1968. A pandemic is defined as a new virus for which no one has immunity, which can affect humans and is spread easily between people.

And more pandemics are expected. Bird flu, which affects mostly poultry and wild birds in Asia, Africa and Europe, is being watched, because it sickened about 300 humans during the past decade.

''A pandemic is inevitable, but we can't say it's imminent,'' said Dr. Martin Cetron, director of global migration and quarantine for the CDC.

Yet in a global economy, it is not possible to create an ''ironclad fortress'' and not be affected, he said. ''The goal is not to stop it from coming here, but to delay its entry and slow down the speed in which it affects our citizens.'' That enables the government to prepare vaccines and distribute antiviral medication, while educating the public.

In the simulation, which took place earlier than scheduled at MIA's South Terminal, pretend passengers filled out health forms, were scanned for fever and assessed for potential exposure. All passengers from the plane must stay together until it is determined whether someone is sick, Pearson said.

Those who are ill or potentially exposed then would have a medical evaluation. Those who are sick are sent to a hospital for testing and evaluation. If passengers are not sick but potentially exposed, their health would be monitored to see whether they develop symptoms.

''The exercise exceeded our expectations,'' Cetron said. ``We learned a lot, but perhaps the most important was the ability of all the agencies to work together.''

 

Definition of a scumbag

Posted on Thursday, October 30, 2008 at 02:06PM by Registered CommenterScott McPherson in , | Comments3 Comments | References2 References

 Killer of Marine deverves the needle.

Delvis Fernandez rode a Marine Humvee's  50 caliber machine gun in the streets of Iraq. Eariler this week, he was killed in a senseless act of violence.

Only he was not gunned down in Iraq. He was gunned down in downtown Sarasota, Florida, his adopted hometown.

He was not gunned down by an Iraqi insurgent, nor was he gunned down by al Qaida-in-Iraq. He was gunned down in a carjacking attempt by a common thug (OK, accused common thug) who, according to police, was aided and abetted in the crime by his mother.

The accused murderer, Deandre Tunstall (photo below), was driven to the crime scene by his mother. Tunstall had a pistol and a black ski mask with him at the time. Police claim Tunstall's mother knew what he was about to do and lied to police about it.

Fernandez was going home after his daily classes to become a police officer. The sheer randomness and the sheer audacity of the crime are shocking, even in this day and age where hardly anything is a shock anymore.  From the Sarasota Herald-Tribune:

SARASOTA - A witness saw Deandre Tunstall, dressed in black from head to toe, pull a black ski mask over his face, put on black gloves and arm himself with a handgun, Sarasota police say.

Deandre Tunstall, already a felon, is charged with murder.

In the afternoon daylight, witnesses saw the man in black confront another man on the north side of the Star Mini-Mart in Newtown, shoot him several times and flee, police say.

Officials say two witnesses picked Tunstall, 18, out of a photo lineup, and detectives arrested the convicted felon and charged him with murder Tuesday night in Manatee County.

A SWAT team and other violent crimes officers surrounded a house, and found a handgun inside when they arrested Tunstall, police said.

Iraq War veteran Delvis Fernandez, 21, died Friday at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. There was apparently no previous connection between Tunstall and Fernandez, police said.

Detectives believe it was a carjacking attempt.

Fernandez stopped at the convenience store, 2950 N. Washington Blvd., on his way home from community college classes Friday about 3 p.m. He was studying to become a Sarasota police officer.

A witness identified Tunstall as the man dressed in all black running east from the convenience store on 30th St., hopping some fences and telling someone on a cell phone to pick him up on Leonard Reid Avenue, police said.

Seven evidence markers showing the locations of bullet casings or bullet fragments were scattered around the passenger side of Fernandez's car, which was towed away Friday afternoon.

Fernandez, a Booker High School graduate, had returned from an eight-month tour in Iraq with the Marine Reserves, where he often manned a .50-caliber gun on the lead car in dangerous supply convoys.

When he got back home, Fernandez also rejoined his minor-league football team, the Sarasota Millionaires, which had final tryouts Saturday just blocks from the shooting.

Millionaires co-owner Bethsaida Williams said Fernandez's teammates were relieved to hear of the arrest Wednesday, as they prepared to go to his wake.

"A lot of thoughts run through your head. Who else does he have it out for?" Williams said.

The funeral is scheduled for this morning.

Fernandez's friends say he gave back to the community, such as reading to elementary school children.

He had been bilingual since his mother brought him here from Cuba, and would have made a good police officer, said those who knew him.

Police also arrested Tunstall's mother, Rose Mary Salem, 41, on a charge of helping her son commit murder and lying to police.

She admitted driving her son to the convenience store just before the shooting, police said.

Tunstall had just been released from jail after pleading guilty to a robbery. He had been arrested in February and was sentenced to time served. Wednesday night, he remained in the Sarasota County jail without bail.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20081030/ARTICLE/810300391

This is not the first time an Iraq war veteran has successfully braved the bullets of the enemy, only to come home and be gunned down by an American in a senseless act of violence.  The perp is usually some thug, some piece of crap loser with no future who acts purely out of self-interest with absolutely no regard for the consequences.

We've got some serious issues here.  Note this scumbag was just released for burglary.  It is a step up to murder, but leniency of a judge is inferred by the articles. 

In this case, the perp was black and the victim was Hispanic.  In other cases, the crime is black-on-black.  They can be white-on-white, or any variation under the sun,  Regardless of color, class or motivation, only when all facets of American society decide to deal with finality and with no remorse toward these scumbags will we actually start to regain control of our streets again and move forward together as a people.  No rationalization of the act; no psychobabble about his upbringing or his hopelessness.  Bullshit.  Only the needle or a lifetime of jail without any hope of parole will suffice for him and others like him who prey upon the lawful.

Sweet Home Alabama

Something is going on in Birmingham -- the new Influenza Research Capital of the US?

I was perusing the Goole Alerts - Bird Flu folder this morning.  If I don't see evidence of avian or human cases, or breaking news such as the untimely death of Graeme Laver, I kind of pass on them until I have some free time.

So I was more than a little interested in the stories that were datelined Birmingham, Alabama.  A vaccine company out of Marietta, Georgia, named Solvay, announced that due to the economy about to do its Death Roll and spiral into the great Abyss of Flaming Mismanagement, along with a Federal shortage of grant monies to build its plant, plus the oversupply of flu vaccine, it was abandoning its plans to build a manufaacturing facility in -- Birmingham, Alabama.

Birmingham?

Then I remembered the hubub surrounding antiviral manufacturer BioCryst, of -- Birmingham.  Its human tests of its new injectible influenza N-class antiviral Peramavir did not go as well as planned, and the company voluntarily stopped Phase three testing and wrote off some $4.9 million in lost revenue from the discontinuation of the HHS-sponsored trials.  But the research into Peramavir continues.

Also showing up on the radar recently is the vaccine manufacturer Vaxin.  Now when I first heard of Vaxin, forgive me if I conjured up a magazine with scantily-clad babes and stories about how to get rock-hard abs and drive Tony Stark's Audi to the foot of the Matterhorn and climb it before lunch.  

Vaxin is actually a company that is trying to use adenovirus as a transport mechanism to deliver influenza vaccine without injection.  Delivered nasally or onto the skin, the adenovirus-transported vaccine would confer quick immunity against influenza, bird flu, anthrax, and Alzheimers (!).  No vaccine against lending money to people who clearly can't pay it back, nor a vaccine against Wall Street and Washington, DC greed, excesses and stupidity.

But I digress. Vaxin is working on the Holy Grail of vaccines:  Cell-based, not egg-based vaccines, delivered quickly and without the need for needles, thimerosol, etc.  Initial tests by Vaxim claim to prevent a host of A and B flus, including some evidence of cross-immunity against H5N1.  The nearly million-dollar NIH grant will fund the research.

Just for grins, I Googled "university Birmingham influenza" and I came up with some additional stuff.  UAB (Go Blazers!) also has a nifty influenza research department, and one Gillian M. Air published a paper on "Antigenic properties of influenza neuraminidases" with none other than the recently late Graeme Laver and the Pope of Influenza, Robert G. Webster.   Published books and papers on the structure of influenza go back well into the early 1990s, and the university has partnered with Vaxin to study the effects of its work.

So a Southern city with its history in the production of steel, civil rights heroes and football players has turned into a major influenza research hub.  I think that is pretty cool.  I also think that is a great example of what a few civic leaders with vision and persistence can accomplish.  Plus, I think it is cool that a college with a dragon as its mascot is doing flu research. 


Business as usual for Rhode Island Reds

Apparently we can all rest easy about the media reports of bird flu being detected in Rhode Island poultry.  Both FLA_MEDIC and Crof have posted on the issue, so I will just have you click on the links. 

But I decided, type-A personality that I am told I am, to personally take charrrge! (can you tell I am getting ready for football season?) and call the number listed in the WPRI-12 news story, as if I were a concerned Rhode Island poultry farmer and wanted to test my flocks.

Guess what I got?  A message!  An older woman's recorded voice proclaims that "the office hours are from 8:30 AM to 4PM, Monday through Friday."

Huh?  They knock off at four in the afternoon?  Good Lord, that is early!  And I guess no one is concerned about H whatever N whatever, since they do not refer to it on the outgoing message.

Guess we will have to wait until tomorrow to see if this is H5N2, H7N-whatever, or H9N-whatever. 

Yes we AVNO bananas

The thought of blogging on Tropical Storm Fay was as far from my mind as praising Supari, until I was reading Mike Coston's Avian Flu Diary blog.  He has been covering Fay and its potential computer-driven trajectories.  In my job as a powerful and influential State government CIO, it is my duty to watch hours and hours and hours of Weather Channel broadcasts until I can expertly predict which outfit Sharon Resultan will wear.  So I pulled myself away from watching Cheryl Lemke (nailed the blazer perfectly), and dutifully pulled up Mike's blog from the weekend, which had computer models showing Fay was headed anywhere from Tallahassee to Ft. Myers to Uzbekestan. 

I noted that the computer model AVNO was the best at predicting the actual trajectory of Fay, followed by a combination of CMC's entry point (Ft. Myers) and BAMD's exit point (Cocoa Beach).  But AVNO nailed it with entry and exit points perfectly -- and I mean perfectly. 

So now, AVNO shows the storm lolligagging (that's a meteriorlogical term, as the President would say) and crossing over (no, not the John Edward crossing over) back to the Gulf coast, and eventually headed for Pensacola.  This would give Fay the opportunity to a) water my lawn dang good without messing it up with tree limbs and such, and b) strengthen into a hurricane, since the northern Gulf waters are quite hot where Fay would go, according to AVNO.

God, where else on the Net are you going to get this kind of in-depth analysis?  Latest computer models at:

http://my.sfwmd.gov/sfwmd/common/images/weather/plots/storm_06.gif

And let's hear it for the fool who went kite surfing on Ft. Lauderdale Beach and got slammed into a) the beach and then b) a building.  There are always people who want to straddle that fine line between adrenaline and a coffin.  I know he was an experienced kite surfer, but you never, NEVER test Mother Nature's patience during such things as tropical storms. 

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/649030.html

http://www.local6.com/weather/17229517/detail.html