Don't expect any warnings from the CDC if this is contaminated during the shutdown.
Flu season has just started, so it's really the
perfect time for
two-thirds of the employees at the Centers for Disease Control to be furloughed by the Republican shutdown of the federal government.
The shutdown means the CDC will not be able to produce the weekly national map that tracks flu outbreaks state by state. Flu season began last month. [...]
More people are likely to get sick because there has been no warning to let them know what problem they have.
"What we won't know is what's happening with flu," [CDC director Dr. Thomas] Frieden said. "Where is it spreading? What types of flu are spreading? Should we be using one medication or another?" he asked. "Is it in nursing homes or elsewhere? This really interferes with our ability to protect people."
Also, too, hepatitis A, salmonella, measles, and food-borne illnesses. Like this year's
outbreak of Cyclospora infections from bagged lettuce. If the CDC isn't operating, we don't necessarily find out that sick people arriving in different hospitals at different times have the same thing and got it from the same source, let alone what that source is.
So when your community is hit hard by the flu or you get E. coli from your salad, don't forget to thank a House Republican. If you stop vomiting for long enough.
Join Daily Kos and the DCCC to tell John Boehner: End this shutdown now.