I am surprised that a recent medical report concerning a national calamity program that would go into effect in the event of a flu pandemic or other type of disaster has not attracted much public attention, nor, for that matter, greater attention from the print and broadcast news media.
It certainly attracted my attention, and for good reason. As reported almost unwillingly by the Associated Press, a task force of experts from universities and colleges, military and government agencies, and various medical groups issued a blueprint for action to be followed if a health-care disaster should hit — like the deadly influenza epidemic of 1917 and 1918 that took so many lives.
Why am I deeply interested? First, I remember my parents’ description of the wagonloads of bodies being hauled through the streets of Cleveland (and other cities) to the cemeteries for burial in the ’17-’18 disaster. Of course, their description came a few years later, when I was old enough to understand.
I was born in January, 1919, at the very tail end of the epidemic, and my parents protected me from anyone with the slightest signs of the flu. What a terrible experience that must have been for those who were old enough to understand — and old enough to be susceptible to the deadly virus.
I can remember my Mom shaking her head even four or five years later as she said something like, “Never again. It must never happen again.” Well, now the doctors and other experts are telling us that it could happen again, and they have formulated a frightening plan of action — or inaction, as it might be — to meet a new flu disaster.
The second reason I am deeply interested by the medical report is that I am one of those persons who would be treated last, if at all, by the medicos when and if a new flu pandemic should strike across America. According to the report, hospitals and other medical groups would treat men and women over 85 last or maybe not at all in an emergency.
I don’t mind saying I didn’t feel at all comfortable with that announcement. In addition, others in the “last” group to be treated also will include “those with severe trauma, those who have been severely burned and are older than 60, those mentally impaired or with Alzheimer’s, and those with a severe chronic disease, such as advanced heart failure, lung disease, or poorly controlled diabetes.”
Let me tell you, it doesn’t feel comfortable to know that you will be all but ignored in the event of a national pandemic. Of course, I would willingly want to see babies, children, and young people treated before me — but it’s a shocker to be told in advance that treatment just may not get to you, after all.
Maybe the public will join with me in asking why the medicos couldn’t at least issue preliminary directions for those in the “last” group to care for themselves in the event of a national pandemic. Surely this group — and those who care for them — should have instructions to follow in such an event.
For me, at the age of 89, it’s almost as if the fates missed me by a month the first time around but will make up for it at the tail end of my life span. See you in church!