Wait in Line; Death Will Follow

When an epidemic breaks loose and the whole world falls into chaos, the last thing that you need is a support system that doesn’t exist or is filled with so much shuffled processes that it might as well not. An extreme yet perfect example would be the black plague or the first discovery and cases of chicken pox. Bob Dunn’s editorial concerning the “Other White Meat Flu” pandemic called “Pandemic Report Card: We’re Dead” states that “only one lab was designated to conduct pandemic flu tests in a region including much more than just Houston – and more than 6 million people” and that “by April, more than 1,000 suspected pandemic flu patients were waiting…and waiting…and waiting for test results to find out what they had.”

First of all, it does not come to my understanding why only one lab was designated to more than six million people. One lab is not enough to research and provide enough evidence to not only contain the flu epidemic nonetheless find a cure for it. The article obviously emphasizes and shouts out for the 1,000 pandemic flu patients that were sitting idle waiting for results that would have proven only their death had the white meat flu been fatal. Dunn basically accentuates on the lack of concern of the CDC and the ineffectiveness of their Response Network. However, he acknowledges the difficulty in providing accurate progress and spread of the flu taking into consideration the acceleration of the pandemic’s spread. This argument proves logical except for the small fact that the CDC would be ignoring the lives of hundreds if not thousands of people.

Another fault in the CDC’s system was mentioned in the article concerning the distribution of the vaccine for the white meat flu and its efficiency, or lack thereof. Dunn bluntly states that “you can manufacture a King-Kong’s buttload of vaccine, but if you don’t distribute it until after most people have caught the disease, it might as well be so much iced tea.” His point in this argument proves to be irrefutable as he further indicates that the companies set to distributing the vaccines would not be able to handle a tripling in their normal production capacity.

I definitely agree with the author concerning the CDC’s negligence of the white meat flu pandemic and believe that the situation could have been handled in a more organized and professional manner. This not only further decreases the prestige of the organization but also allows the public to question their effectiveness, and therefore existence. Out of a scale of 10 I would have to rate Bob Dunn a 7. His score is not as high as it could have been because I feel that more of the CDC’s perspective could have been introduced and refuted therefore providing more credibility towards the article and reinforcing the argument. I really enjoyed how surprisingly informative the article was despite Dunn’s empathetic flare for the victims towards his audience, the people unaffected and unknown to the disease. Overall, the article proved effective but could have used more information from the opposing side allowing the reader to sway towards Dunn’s argument as opposed to being forced there.