Yesterday, President Obama declared a “national emergency” to respond to the H1N1 virus outbreak allowing federal resources to be freed up to support the vaccination effort and to allow doctors and hospitals to more efficiently distribute care to patients in the event of a major outbreak. As soon as the news hit the wire, there were many on both sides of the ideological spectrum calling this everything from a scare tactic to a ploy to push healthcare proposals. This is one of those times that I have to break firmly from my brethren on the right.
This decision was not overly political, so lets not make it so. When President Bush was chastised for the lack of seasonal flu shots available during his administration, we were outraged. He was destroyed in the press for making the infamous statement that Americans should go without the shot unless they were sick or elderly. I will admit that this administration has thrown some softballs by repeatedly telling us that the way to prevent this virus from spreading was to sneeze into our elbow, but this move by the President was the right one to make.
President Obama was not trying to generate a scare. If he was, it would have been announced Monday morning. This administration has a talent for downplaying news it wants no one to hear by releasing information on Fridays, Saturdays, or even Holidays. I can’t very well take the administration to task for using the very tactics I would chide it for if this were information that reflected badly upon the President.
McConnell Offers Bipartisan Support
I am glad to see you have some perspective here. It is definitely not a political issue. But… when Bush told Americans that there were not flu shots available to them it was far worse. That is the flu. This is a potential pandemic. The stakes are slightly different and the steps taken to be prepared were dramatically different as well.
Im sorry, but I don’t see the distinction.