Indonesia and collateral damage of their flu policy

We've covered the Indonesian refusal to cooperate with international influenza surveillance system to a fare thee well (see posts posts here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and links therein), so this is just an update with some additional observations how Indonesia's deplorable behavior isn't that different than the US's deplorable behavior in the Middle East. First, Indonesia. When last we checked in Indonesia had sent off half a dozen flu specimens from the period after the end of January 2007 when it started its boycott. The hope was that the influence of batshit crazy Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari was waning after the publication of her equally batshit crazy book. Apparently the problem is not yet solved:

Indonesia will not fully share bird flu virus samples with the World Health Organisation until a new global mechanism is in place, a senior official said on Monday.

Indonesia is the nation worst hit by H5N1 avian influenza, with 129 human cases, of whom 105 have died.

Indonesia sent bird flu virus samples last month to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a WHO-collaborating laboratory, after a nearly 6-month hiatus when it won assurance that it would get access to affordable vaccines.

But Bayu Krisnamurthi, head of a national commission dealing with bird flu, said Indonesia would only send virus samples on a case-by-case basis until a new virus sharing mechanism currently being drawn up by the WHO took effect.

"The health ministry decides whether or not to send samples," he told a news conference on the sidelines of a meeting to step up the campaign against bird flu in the capital Jakarta and surrounding areas.

He declined to say under what circumstances the ministry would decide to send samples to a WHO collaborating laboratory. (Reuters)

WHO has released a great deal of information about who is taking advantage of the availability of potential vaccine seed strains, so the system has become considerably more transparent. Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, has become a geographic bioreactor for H5N1 with 31 of its 33 provinces reporting poultry infection with the virus. It also leads the world in number of human cases (129) and number of deaths (105). They are playing a literal game of chicken with their own welfare and the welfare of the rest of the world.

So Indonesia has a legitimate issue which they are pursuing in an unacceptable way, a way that endangers others. That's not so unusual, of course. The US does this regularly with its foreign policy and so do other major powers. That doesn't give the US much moral standing in this debate, although that has never stopped the Bush hypocrites and their enablers. Meanwhile, though, there are the rest of us who don't profit from oil or aren't obsessed with distorted ideologies or aren't religious conspiracy nuts like Minister Supari. I guess we're just collateral damage.

As Dick Cheny might say, "So?

More like this

So... We sit, wait and hope it doesnt happen. Supari is under tremendous fire inside the country for the lack of care under their UHC. Billions in the hole and the system is about to collapse.

Residents in the Jakarta Post said last week that she should take the money from the book and put it into the health care system. Also to use it for prosecuting doctors that are supposed to see them but require additional payoffs just to be seen.

Yep, helluva mess but they'll figure it out sooner than later. They are supposed to close the wet markets by 2010 in Jakarta....Good luck on that one. Who are they going to get to enforce it?

By M. Randolph Kruger (not verified) on 25 Mar 2008 #permalink

Amazing revere. You manage, quite often, to include your disdain for the "current administration" in nearly all postings.
Not that it isn't o.k. to do so, and this is coming from a Republican who leans to the right, just that it comes up so often.

re:

"From her writing it is clear (Siti) firmly believes God attends her every meeting, even during long flights to Europe, following minutes and, while on the podium, moving her mouth with divine hands to unleash her anger...."

Change the pronoun and it sounds like a describe of our current monarch KGW II.....

Love the book description revere!

Lea,

Re:"..it comes up so often..."

If you were involved in healthcare in any aspect, you'd understand.

We name hurricanes, we name pandemics. What will we name the next pandemic? Three guesses?

The H5N1 situation in Indonesia is not unlike George Bush's so-called "Iraq War" -- a mishandled mess with science and pragmatism held captive by a delusional ideology and agendas (eg. health minister Supari and her book which suggests transgenic A/H5N1 was created in a US bioweapons lab rather than the scientifically probable confluences of a decade-long global release of unstable viral-based GMOs within an evolutionary paradigm of accelerated horizontal gene transfer and recombination). All politicians involved with public health should accept the changed evolutionary reality A/H5N1 is clearly demonstrating and -- putting asside individual ego, vanity, greed, etc -- become educated in the accelerated HGT and Recombo paradigm.

Victoria, my best guess to your question = Pandemic Supari! You'd be interested to know I've been doing a bit of emailing... Tony Abbott, does he believe in Supari's delusions -- a very simple question!?!

Australian politicians tend to pretend I don't exist. Which is very strange, given American politicians behave in the opposite direction. Perhaps, like Randy Kruger, Aussie politicians consider me an "abomination" due to my body's genetic sequences!?! At least Randy Kruger, an American, has the Christian decency to acknowledge my existence and publicly discuss science matters...

To: "The Hon Tony Abbott MHR, Federal Member for
Warringah, Shadow Minister for Families, Community
Services, Indigenous Affairs and Voluntary Sector"

To: "Center for Public Communication, Secretariat
General Ministry of Health, Indonesia (MOHRI)"

Monday, 24th March, 2008

Howdy,

I'm making an enquiry into the factual veracity of the
following statements made by myself [in reference to you, Tony] onlinked in EffectMeasure -- Fox News: an excremental contribution to the news (22 March, '08) by revere @
http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2008/03/fox_news_an_excremental_c…

Tony, Pauline Hanson used to work with you, did she
not? Upon reflection, do you think you were a "silly
sausage" for helping launch health minister Supari on
her delusional voyage re: your media comments on
CSL-created Indo strain H5N1 vaccine allocations? Do
you agree with health minister Supari's opinion that
H5N1 originated in a US bioweapons lab?

Cheers:*) and Aloha pumehana

By Jonathon Singleton (not verified) on 25 Mar 2008 #permalink

I agree with her (Supari). Read the plan that HHS has for when the Pandemic hits the US and the other plans as a whole. The Feds have the states buying into it all. The schools will close. There will be no large public gatherings allowed, the Feds will have contol of communications, utilities, transportation, and the military will be on the streets enforcing everything. It is a takeover and I would think they even designed and released the disease to get the job completed.

By bigdudeisme (not verified) on 28 Mar 2008 #permalink