The anti-choice activists have completely dispensed with reality, and have gone on to just making stuff up:
The Obama administration’s actions to respond to the outbreak of swine flu, including its declaration of a public health emergency, smacks of an attempt to cover up this week’s Senate vote on the confirmation of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) as secretary of Health and Human Services, a prominent anti-abortion-rights activist told the Washington Independent.
“Some people think that declaring a state of emergency about the flu was a political thing to push the Sebelius nomination through,” Concerned Women for America President Wendy Wright told the website’s Dave Weigel.
Okay, it’s tempting to think that’s just a bit of isolated wingnuttery from the CWA, but apparently it isn’t:
Look likes like the swine-flu-response-equals-cover-up-for-Sebelius meme is working quickly through the right wing. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins weighed in via an e-mail sent to supporters Monday. “[L]iberals are already scheming how they can use the health scare to win the confirmation of pro-abortion extremist Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-Kans.) as Secretary of Health and Human Services,” he writes
Just who are these liberals who confide the truth about their secret conspiracies to prominent national conservative leaders? Perkins leaves us hanging on that one.
That is surprising — when you’re that deep into tinfoil hat territory, it’s usually easiest just to start making more stuff up. I would blame George Soros, myself — he’s usually to blame.
At any rate, what the anti-choicers expect you to believe is that the United States only is concerned about a flu outbreak and possible epidemic in a country that sits on our southern border because it allows them to get Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, D-Kan., into the leadership of the Department of Health and Human Services approximately one week earlier than they otherwise could.
That’s a pretty lame conspiracy. Unless….
…Unless maybe, what they’re saying is that Barack HUSSEIN Obama secretly engineered the flu virus and started spreading it in Mexico, so that he could get Sebelius through to get mandatory, free, universal abortion going even sooner! Yes, it’s all so clear now. Wheels within wheels, man, wheels within wheels.
There is no doubt that the swine flu is a serious health issue. However, is it possible that the media will cease the hysteria? The media can actually use its power to educate and instill confidence the country’s ability to deal with even something as serious as a pandemic. Regardless of what some extremists may say, the United States has the best healthcare on the planet.
Just one more instance of the media to distort and hype.
Answer by a conservative when I asked, “is it also Democrats’ fault that we don’t have a full-fledged Secretary of Health and Human Services, or do Republicans still want to take responsibility for holding up Sebelius’s nomination?”:
The loyal opposition, ladies and gentlemen. It’s more important to keep the other party from being able to function while in power than to allow them to carry out the proper role of government.
TheBender,
The U.S. has the best health care on the planet for the people who can afford it. That has precious little to do with a public health crisis, which by its nature cannot be dealt with by the private sector alone.
Also, I haven’t seen much of the media being very hysterical; I’d say the foreign governments who are all “OMG American and Mexican pork must be banned!” are being much more hysterical, given that you can’t get swine flu from eating bacon. (If you could, a lot more Americans would have it, as swine flu is endemic in our pig population, with an estimated 25-50% of pigs infected.) It’s really just an excuse for them to have protectionist policies that otherwise would get them in trouble with the WTO.
Jeff, is there any chance you can find a different word than lame to describe the conspiracies going around?
PG,
Appreciate your comments. We do differ on a couple of points. Even given its flaws, our healthcare system is the best. I have had the opportunity to visit many other countries and, while many EU countries and Japan have great medicine, each has its unique problems.
I agree that the government needs to be invovlved in dealing with a pandemic-like problem. No less important is the role played by the primary care doc and our ER’s. These entites are the first line of defense in diagnosis and treatment, which obviously plays a large role in containing the disease.
TheBender,
Have you been visiting EU countries and Japan as a person enrolled in their national health insurance schemes (e.g. did you have a job in those countries)? Have you been an uninsured person in need of health care in the U.S.? This is the difference I’m talking about.
Hey, TheBender. Earlier this week, I found a suspicious lump in my left breast.
I’m a guy, so I’m only 1% as likely to contract breast cancer as a women, but still, scary.
I don’t have health insurance. I lost my job about a year ago, and I’ve been looking for a new one, but nothing yet. Also, thus far, I’ve been looking mostly at part time work while I go back to school, and the vast majority of part time jobs don’t offer health insurance.
So, tell me, what do I do about my ‘might be cancer’ lump in our healthcare system? This is not a hypothetical. This is me. What do I do about it in ‘the best healthcare system in the world’?
Because I know what I would do about it in the British, French, Japanese, Canadian, or German healthcare systems, and that would be, “I’d go to a doctor.”
In our system, my options seem to revolve around ‘hoping real hard,’ which is not what you’d expect from the best healthcare system in the world.
—Myca
Ooh. I think your options are 1) hope we move to a rational health care system, 2) mention this at a speech by Barack Obama or 3) keep quiet until you get health insurance and hope it doesn’t kill you before then.
Myca, I’ll be hoping really hard for you.
Myca,
Eep. Any free clinics in your area? Where areyou geographically? Do you just need a primary care physician right now, or is it at the point that you need the services of a radiologist? I also will be hoping hard for you, but will try to think of something materially useful as well.
Thanks, PG, Chingona, and hf! I really appreciate the good thoughts.
I’m in the SF Bay Area, sort of the northeastern part, in a little town called Benicia. There are a few free clinics down in Berkeley and San Francisco, but most of them deal with STDs and drug use. I’ve got a call in to the San Francisco Free Clinic right now to see if they’d be able to help me out.
I don’t think I need to start thinking about a radiologist just yet or anything, I mean I literally just noticed this lump a week back. Nobody official has looked at it yet, and it (fingers crossed) may be nothing.
—Myca
Myca,
It’s most likely just a fibrous cyst. The most important thing to do while you wait for the best healthcare system in the world to do something, anything for you is to monitor it. If it gets noticeably bigger, which it probably won’t, you’ll want to do whatever is necessary to get in to see a doctor. If it doesn’t change much, you probably don’t need immediate attention.
Please note that I am not a doctor nor do I play one on TV. I’m speaking only from my own experience with a similar situation.
Try not to be an exceptional man in terms of breast cancer.
My thoughts are with you, Myca. It’s no fun to have no insurance and then come across a condition that serious, not to mention that it might allow insurance companies to bar you from coverage. Man, I dislike our current insurance industries – they’re like legalized racketeering.
At any rate, hope it’s just a scare. *hug*