In the event of an emergency, don’t look to the feds for help

Dotted across the United States… in specially selected hush-hush locations… are a handful of giant warehouses.

They’re described as each resembling two Super Wal-Mart stores placed side by side, each several stories high.

And inside these top-secret facilities sits approximately $7 billion worth of supplies, drugs, and vaccines — the inventory stockpiled by the U.S. government to be on standby in case of a natural disaster or act of terrorism.

The Strategic National Stockpile program was rolled out during the Clinton administration, and it’s been growing by leaps and billions of dollars ever since.

While this federal preparedness idea may sound good on paper, it has morphed into one of the biggest bonanzas to ever come along for Big Pharma — with the feds socking away tons of drugs.

But the scary fact is that they’re some of the most ineffective and unnecessary drugs out there — and they’re all paid for with your tax dollars.

So, if — God forbid — a catastrophe should happen, it’s very clear that we will need to know how to protect ourselves.

Money down the drain
It turns out that the old saying has never been truer: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

Big Pharma’s very best friends at the CDC run the SNS. So, it’s no wonder that the agency has spent a king’s ransom buying up its products.

But while having medical supplies on hand to help Americans during a crisis is something you might expect the feds to do, what’s going on with the SNS is more like a spending free-for-all to keep Pharma in the black.

Now, while exactly what the SNS buys up is also considered top secret, we have found out some things — one being that a small fortune has been spent purchasing and hoarding the very risky dud-drug Tamiflu.

Millions of doses of Tamiflu were “deployed” by the SNS for the so-called swine flu “pandemic” of 2009. That flu “emergency” was very quickly called a “fake” by numerous experts, including an official at the World Health Organization.

What we now know, and have known for years, is that Tamiflu doesn’t work and is incredibly dangerous. Yet, the SNS continues to maintain what’s probably the world’s largest supply of it.

As one respected researcher said, that’s money “thrown down the drain.”

And just recently, it leaked out that the feds are also the biggest customers for Merck’s highly controversial and dangerous Gardasil shot! We learned that when Merck announced it needed to “borrow” over $240 million worth of the vaccine from the “CDC’s stockpile” for its own sales.

Seriously? Why in the world would the feds be buying up so much of something that vaccinates against a sexually transmitted virus? Is that really what’s needed to save lives during a crisis?

Of course, since the SNS has been in full operation for so long, wouldn’t you expect it to have at least one success story?

Well, it did tote out tons of boxes of supplies during the hysteria over Y2K — when everyone thought that computers would get all confused when the calendar hit the year 2000.

But then again, that turned out to be a non-event.

The bottom line here is that we need to be on our toes and able to cover the basics where emergencies are concerned as best we can.

Because if you’re expecting the feds to come to the rescue, you might be waiting a very long time. Should a catastrophe happen, exactly how fast (if at all) the SNS will be able to deliver the goods from its “life-saving” stockpile remains to be seen!

Now is the time to think about what you and your family might need if you were, say, suddenly cut off from being able to run down to the corner drug store or unable to order supplies online.

That means stocking up on essential items, as well as those you’d have a hard time going without, such as hydrogen peroxide, gauze, burn gels, and antiseptic wipes. It’s also important to have a good supply of batteries on hand — and check to make sure all your flashlights are in working order.

Inside a secret government warehouse prepped for health catastrophes” Nell Greenfieldboyce” NPR, npr.org