Do you think Bush or next president will call up the military in the event of a flu pandemic?

Question

Quarntine people, stop traffic from entering and leaving infected areas. MPs such as they did with Katrina

Answer 1

There are in fact contingency plans already developed where the regular military, not just guard or reserve units, would be called upon to manage quarantines. These plans were developed in coordination with FEMA, CDC and so on. So yes, it could happen.

However, this does NOT mean that if a PI episode occurs, that it WILL happen. As you correctly perceive, it will be a political issue as much as it will be a public health one when and if the time comes to make the decision.

In my opinion, I think it will happen only if other means of maintaining peace and controlling the spread of a really dangerous disease fail and there is a real threat to domestic order.

Answer 2

Sorry, but I chuckle over all these stories about a flu pandemic. Reminds me of the dread "Swine Flu" during the Ford administration. After all of the ramping up of public health resources, the only victims turned ut to be pig farmers in northern New Jersey. But, the vaccine caused a lot of cases, where folks got dreadfully sick from the vaccine. Many developed Guillian-Barre Syndrome, also known as "French Polio". It was an ascending paralysis and life-threatening.
If we have a real pandemic, along the lines of the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-19, I imagine that certain miilitary medical facilities and personnel might be called in to help.
And we might need armed troops to maintain public order in a nation of a growing population of the "I'm for me first" fans.
There's one upside. The Spanish Flu pandemic is one of the reasons World War One ended. Troops on both sides of the trench lines were too ill to fight.

Answer 3

If it means keeping the peace, then yes.

However, I have been hearing of a flue pandemic for a few decades now and I am still waiting. While it is possible, with the Center for Disease Control at the forefront as well as the World Health Organization, it seems we will have plenty of advanced warning to ward off this threat.

The biggest threat today is not disease, but what the people are doing to our world. In a collapse, then disease could be the eventual undoing (along with starvation) -- but not in the current world as we know it.

Peace

Jim

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Answer 4

A flu pandemic is the sort of domestic emergency for which the National Guard is supposed to be ready. Unfortunately, our current administration sent much of the National Guard OVERSEAS, so I don't know whom he'd call up.

Answer 5

If there is a National Emergency declared, the National Guard will be called into service.

Answer 6

Strangely it was the military that spread the influenza in 1918. Our troops retuirning from World War I brought it back with them.

Answer 7

What good would the Military do, other than medical units??