Retraction of the US State Department 3 month SIP Recommendations
On Tuesday, I commented on the fact that the US State Department had sent a wire to all US embassies suggesting that staff prepare to acquire enough food and water to shelter in place for 3 months here. Apparently, only the Hong Kong embassy made this recommendation available to American citizens outside of embassy and consular staff. This also got a lot of attention in the flu forums and at CIDRAP (see Federal workers abroad urged to store food, water). Maybe too much attention. It now appears that this recommendation was withdrawn. In an embarrassing display of clumsy censorship, this recommendation was apparently initially replaced with a nearly identical one recommending 2 weeks of supplies, instead of the original 12. This didn't last long as the entire web page has now been removed. The whole story is described blow by blow over at The Flu Clinic.
How should we interpret this? There have been a number of indications that everyone is not getting the same information regarding how long to prepare for. Some of this is likely do to with clueless local public health officials. However, it also appears that the federal government may be making different recommendations to different groups of people. Why not tell everyone to prep for 12 weeks? Because there isn't enough storable food for the entire population for that period of time, IMO. Who is being told to stockpile for 12 weeks? It appears to me to be essential workers. In a sense, triage has already begun. In some ways, this makes sense. Without essential workers, everything else will collapse in a very severe pandemic. But what will happen when the public finds out that some people had an early warning but that they didn't. And that now the grocery stores are empty?
I don't know what the answer is, but censorship ain't it. The truth wants to be free.
Thursday, November 9, 2006
