If we had a Government at State or Federal Level with any spine, they would ban non -essential travel right now and prescribe quarantine for essential travellers. They have the legal power to do that under the health act already.
The article referenced below describes the failure of the NSW Health Department to quarantine the cruise ship Pacific Dawn even though Fourteen people tested positive for H1N1 flu. The Victorian Government is now desperately trying to track down 36 Victorians from that cruise who
flew back to Melbourne yesterday.
Anger over breach in swine flu quarantine | theage.com.au
I understand why the NSW Health Department failed to act. Cruise ships and Sydney tourism are big business and the NSW Government is corrupt from top to bottom, so what's to know?
The number of confirmed cases doubled overnight and will continue to double on a daily basis unless the Health authorities succeed in containing the outbreak. I don't think they have a hope in hell of doing so, especially with venal, corrupt operators like P&O cruises lobbying the Government about the negative effect of public health controls on business.
What is especially sad in my opinion is that their business, and airline travel, will be sunk anyway within Three weeks if this keeps spreading because no one but a complete idiot will be prepared to expose themselves to infection in an airport, aircraft or cruise ship very shortly. If public health efforts were made this minute, it might be possible to snuff this thing out and at least preserve domestic travel and tourism markets. It's being reported today that swine flu infection is now being excluded from travel insurance - which should send some people a message.
For those of you who think this Flu is no big deal, think again. This level of infectivity has not been seen since 1918. As predicted, air travel has seen it spread almost instantly around the world. The virus is at present causing "mild" disease, however "mild" is a relative term. If you have a pre existing condition it ain't "mild" and experience so far indicates 10% of cases require intensive hospital treatment including ventilation. This does not bode well for death rates when cases number in the millions and hospitals are swamped.
I will ignore the doom lovers who talk of H1N1 mixing with the Brisbane strain of seasonal flu, which is apparently quite severe, or worse still the H5N1 avian flu that kills 80% of those that get it. Having said that, I have to say folks, this is serious, and we ain't seen nothing yet. The Federal Government needs to take more action right now to stop venal corrupt state officials from sabotaging public health measures for economic reasons.