Bird Flu

Photo on left is a monument in the Philadelphia National Cemetary that was erected over a mass grave of Confederate soldiers who died of typhoid in a local Pennsylvania POW camp.

Don'tgointothelightBlog is upset about an AP story about National Cemetaries. The article states that in case of a bird flu epidemic with mass deaths there would not be enough people to bury the dead soldiers and veterans in National Cemetaries....

"...Those burials could stop or be put on hold during a pandemic, presumably even as the tally of dead surges, according to a VA plan that lays out how it will cope with an influenza outbreak. The government is preparing for a worst-case scenario of nearly 2 million deaths in the United States in a pandemic..."

Well, I'm happy someone is making plans.
One thing that impressed me about the military is that like the Catholic church it has a long memory.
So when we National Guard docs were briefed about HIV, the lecture started with the tale of some German mercenaries in Italy who were decimated thanks to syphillis...in 1494...

Similarly, due to close quarters, the death rate of soldiers was high from the 1918 flu epidemic.

The military has to remember that illness is a greater threat than bullets.
And part of this includes remembering how to dispose of bodies in mass epidemics.

Best quote: "If there's truly a catastrophic kind of thing — whether it be a bird flu pandemic or a massive, terrorist-instigated attack that would claim tens or hundreds of thousands of lives — a lot of that frankly involves bulldozers," said ...the American Legion's deputy director for national security and a Vietnam veteran.