When the U.S. Government came out with "You're On Your Own" (YOYO) in a pandemic, I understood. I went to my state summit meeting. I heard Secretary Leavitt. I heard the message loud and clear.

 

However, one small meeting in each state does not make a Pandemic Information Campaign. A website that many people do not know about nor have access to is not mass communication. Four or five citizen meetings in a population of 300 million is not mass communication nor mass citizen input. A conference here and a conference there is not mass communication. Nearly a year later, so many people have not heard the message I did. So many people have not been given enough information to put YOYO in context, even if they have heard that part.

 

As crfullmoon, a tireless seeker of truth, pointed out on the Thoughts on Indonesia thread at PFI forum, we pay taxes, and we should expect a return on our investment. I agree. Specifically, we pay taxes to fund HHS and the CDC. Our tax money funds much of the scientific work in the U.S. on H5N1. Our tax money supports information gatherers, and our tax money supports our politicians. In fact, our tax money even pays for risk communication consultants. Where is that communication? Where is the Pandemic Information Campaign?

 

I expect the government to share, not just with the few but with everyone, the findings of their research and information gathering about a pandemic. After all, we pay them for this work. I expect the government to let the public know they have a website. I expect HHS to tell people to prepare because we have already paid their salaries to do so. I expect them to get the message out loud and clear to everyone and fast. 

 

The question I asked last year - Why aren't they telling everyone? - has changed this year to - Don't they want us to know? - at least in any timeframe that would put the nation on a war footing toward mass preparation. I see the Swiss government ordering vaccines for their entire population with their tax money. I see that their government is working for all of their citizens, but I do not see ours doing the same.

 

The government does have the ability to do a Pandemic Information Campaign on a mass scale. For starters, HHS can do a mass mailing. The IRS certainly knows where we live. The Food Stamp program knows where people with little or no income live. The Unemployment program knows where check recipients live. The Social Security program knows where folks live. The Census Bureau knows where everyone lives. The government once knew how to do a mass mailing about our health and welfare. Aids information was sent to every household in the U.S. Where is the mass mailing with pandemic information and the need to prepare and the government website address?

  

President Bush and our elected leaders of both parties and the Bush administration's political appointees know that, despite the preparation of government employees and corporations, many folks will be out of work and out of money even if food appears in the stores sporadically by some miracle. In fact, they know that, at the least, whole industries, such as the travel and hospitality industry will shutdown and the impact that will have on the workers they employ - not to mention restaurant workers, people who clean houses, real estate agents, and so on. These people must get pandemic information and prepare as much as the CEOs of major corporations. Everyone is entitled to know what the CEOs and people in Congress know. Where is that Pandemic Information Campaign? Where is that mass mailing?

 

Along with our leaders in Congress, we are fully capable of understanding that a pandemic wave may last 12 weeks throughout the country, and that we may have several. We are capable of understanding that we had better stockpile as much as we can. We understand that some citizens will need help, but we must reach a critical mass of shared knowledge to move that help forward. We need a well-informed citizenry. We know it takes time to prepare, and we must work quickly. Where is that Pandemic Information Campaign? Where is that mass mailing?

 

By the way, if anyone is reading this from the government, the official pandemic website and other government messages need some work before you refer everyone to them in your mass mailing. Please change the "stockpile for two weeks" checklist and message. We know that "two weeks" is not enough. I've read the pandemic testimony to Congress. I know our Representatives and Senators don't buy that for a minute. I know Osterholm has testified on a pandemic and the JIT economy. I know other individuals and organizations have testified before Congress on the impact of a pandemic. I know their testimony is in the record, though deliberately not on the government website. Please put that information on the website.

 

I also realize that the testimony to Congress, currently on the website, is mostly from political appointees. I know that the testimony is a prepared statement with an eye toward public consumption and to put on the website. I know the real nitty gritty is in the Q and A sessions with Congress people after the testimony. Where are the Q and A sessions for us to read on the website?

 

I know Secretary Leavitt is not so foolish as to believe the government website is being fully truthful with the American people. You can bet he is going to put away food, water, and medicine for more than two weeks for his children. So please get this message to Secretary Leavitt: "Please do some work on that website, and please do a mass mailing to every citizen in the U.S. with the address to your new and improved, more truthful website included, as well as information to prepare so those without computers can get the word, too. After all, we pay your salary so that you can work to better the health and welfare of the American people. Pandemic information is critical on both counts. Thank you."