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Take Action
and Forward
"Bay
State not ready for a flu epidemic." That's the
headline on the front page of today's Boston Globe (also see
article below).
We understand that a pandemic flu is
inevitable, and that when it occurs, it will threaten
lives and challenge our communities and the
economy.
Preparing for a pandemic flu is the
subject of MPHA's annual meeting this Thursday (for more
information or to register, visit www.mphaweb.org).
But public health concerns, including pandemic flu
planning, have not been part of the debate among the
candidates for governor.
Our next governor will
have a major influence on the health of the people of
Massachusetts. We need to know what plans, if any,
the candidates have for providing resources and
leadership in preparing for pandemic flu.
Please
contact the four candidates for governor and ask them
what their plans are (contact information
below). Please forward any responses to
MPHA.
Thank you.
Geoffrey
Wilkinson
Executive Director
Massachusetts Public
Health Association
Candidate Contact
Information
Deval Patrick
(Democrat)
Deval Patrick Committee
P.O. Box
961629
56 Roland Street, Suite 100D
Boston, MA
02196
617-367-2006
info@devalpatrick.com
www.devalpatrick.com
Grace
Ross (Green)
Friends of Grace Ross 4
Governor
2 Merrick Street
Worcester, MA 01609
508-754-3505
grace4gov@green-rainbow.org
www.graceandmartina.org Christy Mihos (Independent)
Christy 2006 Committee
9 Park Street
Boston, MA 02108
617-399-2244
www.christy2006.com
(email form available on web site)
Kerry Healey
(Republican)
Healey Committee
85 Merrimac Street
Boston, MA 02114
617-523-0844
www.healeycommittee.com
(email form available on web
site)
Bay State not ready for
a flu epidemic
$36.5m Romney plan
shelved by Legislature
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff
| October
3, 2006
Eight months after Governor Mitt Romney asked
legislators to spend $36.5 million to rapidly prepare
the state for an influenza epidemic, not a single
additional hospital bed, breathing machine, or bottle of
medicine has been purchased.
The governor's request is languishing on Beacon Hill,
even as public health specialists, Democratic lawmakers,
and Romney's aides warn that the failure to act could
leave the state vulnerable if a particularly bad flu
season strikes. The House Ways and Means Committee is
reviewing the plan but has no timetable for finalizing
it.
``It's frustrating to see how ineffective political
relationships stall action on important public health
policy like this," said Geoffrey Wilkinson, executive
director of the Massachusetts Public Health Association.
``It's very important to get resources into the hands of
local health officials."
On the best days, Massachusetts hospitals have barely
enough beds and ventilators to handle the regular
patient load, and they would be staggered by an
onslaught of wheezing, feverish flu patients in an
epidemic, specialists said.
The proposal from Romney and the Department of Public
Health calls for purchasing 5,000 sophisticated medical
cots for overflow patients, 2,000 ventilators to sustain
their breathing, and medication to treat and prevent the
flu in 44,000 people.
``No matter how aggressively hospitals use their
existing bed capacity, the state's not going to have
enough ventilators, enough bed space," said Dr. Paul
Biddinger , associate director of the Harvard School of
Public Health's Center for Public Health Preparedness
.
And it will be too late to buy that equipment once an
epidemic begins spreading, specialists said.
``There are some things that have to be done ahead of
time," said Dr. David Ozonoff , an environmental health
specialist at the Boston University School of Public
Health . ``Making sure there are enough ventilators,
that's something you've got to do in advance because
when the time comes, everybody's going to want more
ventilators."
Disease specialists warn that a global flu epidemic
akin to the cataclysmic 1918 outbreak -- which killed
about 50 million people worldwide -- could inflict
difficult-to-treat respiratory infections on 90 million
Americans. And the crisis, known as a pandemic, would be
especially acute in Massachusetts because of the lack of
excess capacity. Even a bad flu season, short of a
pandemic, could paralyze the region's healthcare
system.
So, in February, Romney stood before hundreds of
federal, state, and local health officials at a flu
summit and delivered his plan to prepare the state for a
pandemic.
Almost from the minute the governor's proposal was
unveiled, it met with hostility from the Legislature's
leading voices on health issues.
The reaction is ``cause for great concern, and the
lack of action by the Legislature is discouraging," said
Eric Fehrnstrom , the governor's chief spokesman. ``To
do nothing exposes the people of Massachusetts to a
disease outbreak, and that's inexcusable."
State Senator Richard T. Moore , chairman of the
Joint Committee on Health Care Financing, said it was
not the Legislature's fault, but Romney's plan, which he
said was sparse on details. For instance, the Uxbridge
Democrat said, it included no provision for where
millions of dollars' worth of emergency medical
equipment would be stored.
``If we should have a pandemic or even a serious flu
season, the governor's response is going to be, `The
Legislature didn't act on this,' " Moore said, ``so it
puts us in a bad light.
``But their request wasn't going to help us do
anything meaningful," he said. ``It would have helped
the governor's position to say he tried to do something,
and that's about all it would have done."
The chief of staff for the House Ways and Means
Committee, James Eisenberg , said that legislators
decided the proposal should be broadened to address an
array of health crises . The House added a number of
provisions, including one on the quarantining of
potentially infectious patients.
The measure is ``something that is on our proverbial
radar screen," Eisenberg said. ``But it doesn't make
sense to address this piecemeal."
As a result of the Legislature's delay, officials in
Romney's Department of Public Health grew frustrated and
their interest in the measure waned, said Lowell health
department director Frank Singleton , a strident
champion of flu preparations.
``The problem is the state health department was
sulking about the major revision of the bill," Singleton
said. ``They actually weren't pushing it for a
while."
Administrators at the Department of Public Health
referred all questions about the flu epidemic plans to
the governor's office.
In an e-mail, Fehrnstrom emphatically denied that the
Romney administration's interest in the issue had ever
wavered. He cited a series of meetings the state's
public health commissioner, Paul J. Cote Jr., conducted
with legislators, as well as written communications the
commissioner had with members of the House.
State Representative Peter J. Koutoujian , chairman
of the House Committee on Public Health , said that he
is now looking to narrow the proposal so that the most
urgent needs can be met.
But approval won't come soon enough to buy supplies
for this year's flu season, which begins in about a
month. However, last year's flu season began slowly,
reaching its peak in March, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention , which will begin
tracking flu cases nationwide in two weeks.
``Further delay isn't going to make the situation any
better," said Paul Wingle , spokesman for the
Massachusetts Hospital Association . ``We need to
prepare to the best of our ability for a very bad
scenario. We'll pray that that scenario never comes to
pass ."
Stephen Smith can be reached at
stsmith@globe.com.
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