Number 1 Of The 5 Worst

government responses to swine flu issue according to Discover Magazine.



"1. Wait, an Epidemic Started Here? Should We Do Something? It's been over two weeks since the first victim died in Mexico, and the Mexican government's initial response hovers just above chaotic. For one, the authorities still haven’t provided the families of the dead—i.e., those most likely to have been exposed to the virus—with medicine. Nor has the government pinpointed where the outbreak began, or how it spread. And while officials are urging anyone who feels sick to go to hospitals, the AP reports that sick individuals are complaining that ambulance workers refuse to pick them up.
The Mexican health agency's utter lack of organization or mobilization—despite a more than $5 billion annual budget—is understandably causing a crisis of faith among Mexican citizens, according to the AP:
"'Nobody believes the government anymore,' said Edgar Rocha, a 28-year-old office messenger. He said the lack of information is sowing distrust: 'You haven't seen a single interview with the sick!'"
For his part, Mexican health secretary Jose Angel Cordova argued that the outbreak is unlike any in the past, and that personnel shortages kept his agency from distributing the medicine faster. Still, his responses to questions from the press are less than comforting:
"Cordova said he couldn't provide information on the victims for reasons of confidentiality, but promised to eventually release a statistical breakdown. He said he couldn't provide that data now 'because it's being processed.' Asked whether he could at least say how many of the 20 confirmed victims were men and how many were women, he said: 'I don't have that information.'"discovermagazine