Compilation of News and links forwarded to a Blog, links at bottom:
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On October 1st, the same day that Bush activated the 1st Brigade domestically, the Office of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services released a disturbing "Declaration Under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act":
Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Secretary
Declaration under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act
October 1, 2008
AGENCY: Office of the Secretary (OS), Department of Health and Human Services
ACTION: Notice.
SUMMARY: Declaration pursuant to section 319F-3 of the Public Health
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 247d-6d) to provide targeted liability
protections for anthrax countermeasures based on a credible risk that
the threat of exposure to Bacillus anthracis and the resulting disease
constitutes a public health emergency.
You can read it in full:
http://www.hhs.gov/disasters/emergen...ct-081001.html
This declaration was published in
The Federal Register October 6, 2008:
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/E8-23547.htm
What is the purpose of this notice?
It provides legal immunity for contractors who are manufacturing anthrax vaccines.
If you are hurt by taking an anthrax vaccine, you cannot sue the manufacturer.
Support for this idea comes from
a Government program just announced to distribute Anthrax vaccine to 100% of the population in certain areas using United States Postal Workers.
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Mailmen might deliver meds in next anthrax attack
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081001/...QxfQesgims0NUE
Yahoo News October 1, 2008:
If there ever is another anthrax attack, the letter carrier may deliver your antibiotics. Federal health officials are beginning a project in Minneapolis-St. Paul to let letter carriers stockpile a personal supply of emergency antibiotics so they are protected and ready to deliver aid to the rest of the city at a moment's notice.
"These letter carriers are being asked to put their lives on the line to help their communities," Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said Wednesday. By ensuring they are protected first, "the carriers can be ready on short notice to take to the streets."
The project aims to overcome a big hurdle of emergency planning. The government has much drugs stockpiled in case of future bioterrorism, but few ways to get them quickly to panicked citizens. Leavitt noted that if someone possibly has inhaled anthrax, the chances of survival are best if antibiotic treatment begins within 48 hours.
The U.S. Postal Service came forward, he said. "They have people who every day walk to every house."
Those carriers could provide "a front-end quick strike," added William Raub, Leavitt's senior science counselor.
But could letter carriers successfully deliver medications to a great number of homes during an emergency, when the carriers might be mobbed? Would they be willing?
To address the first issue, test projects in Seattle, Philadelphia and Boston over the past two years paired letter carriers with police officers on holidays. Carriers volunteered to do double routes, delivering empty pill bottles along with a "This is a Test" flier explaining what was happening. In Philadelphia, 50 carriers reached about 53,000 households in eight hours, Raub said.
As for getting volunteers, the post office and its unions told the government that carriers who stepped up during this kind of emergency would need assurances that they and their families were fully protected.
That led to the idea of letting carriers store enough of the antibiotic doxycycline in their homes for them and their families. In an emergency, they could start taking the medication while the government raced in more supplies for the rest of the city that the carriers then would distribute to people's homes.
Some 700 letter carriers who deliver to 20 ZIP codes are eligible for the Minneapolis pilot project. Medical teams will screen volunteers to be sure they are appropriate candidates for a prescription of doxycycline. The carriers also would have to be physically fit enough to wear a special anthrax-protective mask while walking their mail routes.
Volunteers receive extensive education, including a prohibition on dipping into their stored doxycycline for any other reason. Raub does not think that is a big threat. In a different test, medication kits went out in advance to emergency responders in St. Louis to see if they would store them properly without using them; more than 98 percent of the kits were returned intact.
Leavitt on Wednesday authorized the postal service's role in the event of another anthrax attack. Next, the Food and Drug Administration must approve prescribing the drug before the Minneapolis project begins. An FDA deputy commissioner, Randall Lutter, said the agency would act quickly.
Minneapolis was chosen because of its extensive bioterrorism preparations, Raub said. If the $500,000 pilot project works well, it could be offered to other cities starting next year.
In the fall of 2001, anthrax-laced letters killed five and sickened 17 others, and thousands were prescribed protective doses of the antibiotics Cipro and doxycycline.
Blog post:
http://snardfarker.ning.com/profiles...%3A70690&xgs=1
Mark Century Prison Planet post:
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=63802.0
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The burning question remains: Why now?
The anthrax vaccines have already been manufactured.
So why is the government suddenly so interested in protecting itself from the costs of indemnifying the vaccine manufacturers? Could it be that they have reason to believe that an anthrax attack is imminent?
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My comments: I heard about the Avian Flu scare but I didn't know Anthrax was on their menu.

Pretty sneaky I must say I didn't hear about this one before.
I think everyone should continue to prepare and because it appears we may not over the hump yet. Just posted as an FYI.
Stay vigilant.