Copyright 2006 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
By KAREN WAGNER
The Chicago Sun-Times
The Bush administration is expected to shortly approve a plan to handle a national influenza pandemic. Included among the 300 suggested responses by federal agencies are vaccinating certain first responders, increasing the capacity of the Internet to accommodate workers who stay home, hiring foreign nations to print our currency and stockpiling rubber gloves. The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning a ''drive-thru’’ medical exam to decide patients’ conditions.
While I am amazed that the advice of medical professionals seems to have been largely ignored and that we would outsource our top-secret processes for printing currency, I do have a suggestion for the ''drive thru’’ medical assessments. Videos of those being examined could be transmitted to Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), and he could do the assessments. He did so well diagnosing Terri Schiavo from a video.