Homeland Security to be lead in flu crisis

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Homeland Security to be lead in flu crisis

But DHS will defer all medical response to Health and Human Services

 

By Brock N. Meeks

Chief Washington correspondent

MSNBC

Updated: 4:17 p.m. ET Oct. 11, 2005

 

 

Brock N. Meeks

Chief Washington correspondent

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WASHINGTON - If the nightmare of an avian flu pandemic emerges from

the dark chapters of doomsday scenarios, it will fall to the

Department of the Homeland Security, not the medical establishment, to

manage the crisis, according to federal documents and interviews with

government officials.

 

The DHS lead role, however, seems at odds with operational plans that

call for the Department of Health and Human Services to be the

government's go-to agency in such a crisis.

 

According to current documents outlining operational plans for public

health and medical emergencies, HHS " is the primary Federal Agency

responsible for public health and medical emergency planning,

preparations, response, and recovery. "

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That HHS planning document, currently under revision and circulating

among federal agencies for comment, seemingly conflicts with the

federal National Response Plan, a kind of overarching playbook for how

to manage any number of national disasters, from terrorist events to

hurricanes and floods. But under the National Response Plan, which

also plans for actions in case of pandemics, DHS assumes top authority

when an " incident of national significance " is declared.

 

Officials from DHS and HHS told MSNBC.com that the departmental

statements outlining the chain of authority aren't in conflict at all.

 

An influenza pandemic " would obviously be declared an `incident of

national significance and DHS would be the overall in-charge agency, "

said Brian Doyle, a DHS spokesman.

 

Doyle noted the " unique partnership " his agency has with HHS. " HHS

would be the lead agency on the health side of it, " he said, echoing

comments made by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in late

August.

 

The first such " incident of national significance " was declared in

August after Hurricane Katrina hit; however, federal coordination

among agencies and state and local governments broke down on so many

levels that even President Bush was forced to acknowledge that the

plan was flawed.

 

In the event of a flu pandemic, " the way it works is that DHS is going

to turn to [HHS] to work with the states and the locals on the actual

health and medical response to what's going on, " said Mark Wolfson, an

HHS spokesman.

 

" In the meantime, if we're dealing with a pandemic situation, where

we've got people getting sick all over the country and all over the

world, then what Homeland Security is going to be doing is

coordinating the overall federal response to implications of the

pandemic, " he said.

 

Role playing the pandemic

Federal officials have been role playing different flu outbreak

scenarios for the past several months and the results have lead to

revisions in the current plan, which was drafted last year.

 

Last year's plan called for closing of schools, restricting travel and

implementing textbook, lock-down quarantine measures. Those extreme

measures jumped into the spotlight last week when President Bush

suggested that federal military troops — not just the National Guard —

may have to be called in to enforce a quarantine.

 

DHS officials privately acknowledge that any such forced quarantine

could swiftly turn violent, with people rioting to get away from a

perceived diseased area.

 

 

" If you quarantine it's going to get ugly really quick, I'm afraid, "

said a DHS official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying he

was not authorized to talk about internal planning discussions.

 

It's just that potential for chaos that has the administration

examining the steps needed to allow the President to put federal

troops in charge of the situation.

 

" These are all issues that we need to look at, and that's why

[President Bush] thinks there needs to be a robust discussion with

Congress and do we need to establish some sort of trigger that would

automatically say the federal government, and specifically, the

military, is the one that will be in charge of stabilizing the

situation, " said White House Spokesman Scott McClellan during a Sept.

26th press conference. " And then the Department of Homeland Security

would come back into play once the situation is stabilized, " McClellan

said.