Government policy will kill swine flu victims

Isherwood: Government policy will kill swine flu victims

The first global pandemic in 40 years will definitely kill more Australians, thanks to successive federal and state governments slashing health care for more than two decades, Citizens Electoral Council leader Craig Isherwood said today.

Mr Isherwood accused Australia’s governments of being laissez-faire about the H1N1 virus, because their cost-cutting of public health has sabotaged our defences against the pandemic:

“The World Health Organization has declared swine flu to be a global pandemic, it is spreading rapidly in Australia, but also in the Northern Hemisphere out-of-season, it has the potential to be the most virulent flu strain since the 1918 H1N1 Spanish flu which killed tens of millions of people, yet Australia’s health authorities are singing ‘que sera sera’,” he charged.

“They have given up trying to prevent its transmission, are discouraging people from taking antiviral medication, and Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon has even attacked sporting groups which have taken the precaution of cancelling events.

“Why? Because two decades of Nazi-style cuts to health expenditure has destroyed our capacity to adequately respond to this sort of emergency.”

Mr Isherwood stated that a lack of raw materials, manpower and money is the reason that testing all patients for swine flu has been scaled back:

“States like Queensland are taking on the burden of testing flu swabs from Victoria and NSW, because their public health systems have been dismantled.

“A public health official told the CEC, ‘I don’t know how they’re going to cope. They’re just proving now they can’t cope, and thus far it’s only mild.’

“Experts warn that because of its potential to recombine or mutate, it is crucial that we both limit the spread of the virus in its current form, and that we are prepared for the pandemic to become more deadly.

“For example, we should have cancelled the Rugby League State of Origin Game in Melbourne,” he said, “Queensland had 24 cases of swine flu prior to the game, then reached 100 in the week following.”

Mr Isherwood concluded, “This is another example where governments have failed in their duty of care to the Australian people, because of their ideological commitment to globalist policies, but this time it will kill a lot of people.”

ends

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