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| Great White North |
| Canadian Aboriginals Not Impressed With Government Health Care - Body Bags |
| 2009-09-17 |
| Health officials ordered an investigation Thursday into why the Canadian government sent body bags to an Aboriginal reserve in Manitoba after community leaders requested assistance to deal with an expected outbreak of swine flu. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #7 Seems to me that it was a logical step; a remote area and the truck undoubtedly had space, why run half empty? plus being remote, if fatalities do occur, it also seems logical that medical care will be tied up in the more populated areas.... |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2009-09-17 23:25 |
| #6 "Anyone suggesting that our government's solution to H1N1 is body bags is sensationalizing this situation," the health minister said. I suspect there may be just a bit of that going on as well. |
| Posted by: Woozle Uneter9007 2009-09-17 23:12 |
| #5 I do understand what you're saying, lotp, but if the only "assistance" they sent in response to the request was a load of body bags, sorry, they're clueless idiots. I have no doubt that some body bags will be needed if there's an outbreak, but a little common sense would tell them to explain why they were sending them and also send some information about preventing an outbreak, dealing with the illness if there is an outbreak, etc. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-09-17 22:54 |
| #4 Yes, I understand the image issue here. My point still stands however. |
| Posted by: lotp 2009-09-17 22:26 |
| #3 This is a political issue, not a health issue. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2009-09-17 22:10 |
| #2 I disagree, Barbara. There's a good chance that H1N1 will not mutate to be as deadly as its early 20th century form. There's a very real chance, however, that it will. And if it does, dealing with dead bodies will be a critical factor in limiting its spread. I sat on the pandemic influenza planning committee for my military employer. Projections in the worst case were 4 waves of infections, a few months apart, with 30-50% workforce sick, dead or at home caring for sick dependents and kids sent home from closed schools during each wave. When that many workers are not at their jobs, there can be cascading failures of infrastructure at places like water treatment plants. Public sanitation measures become absolutely critical at that point. And that includes plans for collecting and perhaps mass burial of still infectious dead bodies. How to deal with the bodies of those who died during a pandemic was a serious topic for planning at our installation and in the civilian plans I've heard briefed. Any local leader, indigenous or otherwise, that suggests that such planning means the federal government isn't doing it job is ... misinformed. or posturing. or both. |
| Posted by: lotp 2009-09-17 21:51 |
| #1 Said "health officials" should save the money they plan to spend on the investigation - I can tell them the answer for free. You're idiots. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-09-17 21:23 |