WMR has learned from a U.S. military source with responsibility for the U.S. military's response to an expected A/H1N1 mutated virus pandemic in October that the threat currently posed by the mutated virus is "significant."
WMR has also learned that Asia and the Pacific are expected to be "ground zero" for the mutated influenza strain and that major U.S. contingency operations to respond to the more virulent form of the current hybrid "swine flu" are now being staged out of Japan.
In addition, the U.S. hospital ships, USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort are being readied to respond to the initial stages of the more deadly virus expected to hit in October. The military response to the expected October surge in cases of mutated flu, for which current vaccines will be ineffective, is being coordinated by the Surgeon General of the United States and the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED).
The Department of Defense is engaged in high-level counter-influenza contingency planning in Hawaii, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia. The Pentagon's preparations are said to be "huge."
WMR has also learned of highly-classified military programs involving North Korea when the mutated flu strikes that isolated country. However, details of the program could not be obtained from our source.
Currently, the strategy of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and the Department of Health and Human Services is not to raise any alarms by closing schools or restricting travel at airports. The government wants to maintain "a sense of normalcy," according to our well-placed source. However, the source also stated that the "alarm should now be sounded" about the coming catastrophic flu season expected to rear its head worldwide in the autumn.
Special fears have been raised for children and pregnant women when the mutated flu begins to spread, revealed our military source.
U.S. military planners are reportedly planning for the worst case scenario but their ranks are plagued with high-level incompetence, WMR has been told. In addition, some military officials are distressed with the approach taken by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in putting too much faith in vaccines. Experts warn that vaccines developed to combat the current hybrid A/H1N1 flu may not be effective against the deadlier mutated strain expected to wreak havoc in the autumn months. Current plans are to have 160 million doses of the vaccine to combat the current strain of A/H1N1 in readiness in October, the same month a public health awareness and vaccination program is set to begin.
WMR has also learned from a financial adviser that financial investment strategies are already being tailored in reaction to the expected mutated swine flu pandemic expected around the October time frame. Many Wall Street insiders fear a "perfect storm" of a jittery economy and a deadly flu pandemic will trigger a "financial catastrophe" in October.
Although there are preparations being made by the military and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for quarantines of cities and regions of the country, contingency planners warn that they "cannot be depended on."