Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Military Prepared For Swine Flu Pandemic; Waiting For Possible Tasking

A doctor wearing full body protective gear stand in the Naval hospital as patients, wearing face masks stand in line to be treated, are reflected in a window in Mexico City, Tuesday, April 28, 2009. World health officials raised a global alert to an unprecedented level as the swine flu was blamed for more deaths in Mexico and the epidemic crossed new borders, with the first cases confirmed Tuesday in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

From Examiner.com:

U.S. Northern Command, which has primary responsibility for the homeland security mission, developed a communications plan (COMPLAN) for responding to a pandemic in December 2007. Elements of the directive were rehearsed four months later, according to Mike Kucharek, a command spokesman.

Kucharek stressed that NORTHCOM has not been formally tasked to support the federal response to the flu outbreak. But he said that there is “significant” on-going coordination between staff officers at the command, and their counterparts at other federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services.

Read more ....

My Comment: I am sure that the military has contingency plans for a biological attack. Since a pandemic would have many of the same attributes as a biological attack, these same protocols and procedures on how to respond to a biological crisis can also be used .... or so I hope.

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