Swine Flu Note

Left-leaning pundits and bloggers everywhere are bloviating at length about how the holdup on the nomination of Kathleen Sebelius as HHS Secretary, and the concomitant vacancy of twenty or so executives positions in that department, is a disaster in the face of the current Swine Flu outbreak. I regard that as nonsense at a couple of levels.

First, the Department of HHS is staffed by career professionals who are not sitting around reading magazines and waiting for these 21 people to tell them what to do. The unfilled positions are political, policy-making positions which have little to do with the day-to-day operation of the department.

Secondly, and more importantly, an outbreak of a communicable disease is monitored by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. It is fully staffed and its management staff is fully in place. It is monitoring the outbreak and is releasing public statements on a regular and as-needed basis.