# 979
9% of Americans are Very Confident in our government's ability to handle a major outbreak of an infectious disease.
Amazingly, 32% are somewhat confident.
So roughly 40% of those polled feel pretty good about our government's ability to handle a medical crisis.
Of course, most of the people who were queried have never studied pandemics, or our supply chain dependent infrastructure, or have looked in depth at the pandemic plans on the books.
So Caveat Lector.
Polls are interesting, but they reflect general perceptions, not reality. There is also a huge amount of ambiguity in the phrase `handle a major outbreak'. And much would depend on the nature and severity of an outbreak.
So while the value of this poll is questionable, it is at least a bit reassuring that on this Sunday morning the news is so slow that I've had to resort to reporting on it.
U.S. Not Ready for Outbreak, Say Americans
July 15, 2007
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Most people in the United States believe their government would not respond properly to a national emergency, according to a poll by Ipsos-Public Affairs released by Associated Press. 59 per cent of respondents express little confidence in the administration’s preparedness to handle a major outbreak of an infectious disease.
Laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza in several countries around the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the virus could mutate into a form that can be transmitted among people.
Since 2003, 317 cases of bird flu in humans have been confirmed, and 191 fatalities have been reported in 12 Asian and African countries.
In November 2005, U.S. president George W. Bush outlined the federal government’s plan to deal with a possible outbreak of pandemic influenza, saying, "Our strategy is designed to meet three critical goals: First, we must detect outbreaks that occur anywhere in the world; second, we must protect the American people by stockpiling vaccines and antiviral drugs, and improve our ability to rapidly produce new vaccines against a pandemic strain; and, third, we must be ready to respond at the federal, state and local levels in the event that a pandemic reaches our shores."
On Jul. 2, John Lange, the U.S. State Department’s special representative on avian and pandemic influenza, declared: "The H5N1 virus is highly persistent; it is spreading in poultry populations, and the threat that it will mutate to become a human pandemic continues. (...) At least 178 countries have drafted or finalized their national pandemic preparedness plans. (...) One element of such preparedness is the Community Mitigation Guidance prepared by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
Polling Data
How confident are you that the U.S. government is prepared to handle a major outbreak of an infectious disease?
Very confident
9%
Somewhat confident
32%
Not too confident
33%
Not at all confident
26%
Source: Ipsos-Public Affairs / Associated Press
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,000 American adults, conducted from Jun. 4 to Jun. 6, 2007. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.
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