The CDC claims the flu is at the epidemic threshold

 According to this story the CDC has stated that the flu is at the epidemic threshold. Here is more:

the CDC says the U.S. has hit the flu epidemic threshold nationwide.

According to the CDC, the proportion of deaths reported in 122 U.S. cities from pneumonia and influenza surpassed the seasonal baseline and currently stands at the epidemic threshold of 6.8 percent. The number of states reporting high flu activity has also increased from 13 to 22.

  The World Health Organization defines the epidemic threshold thusly:

the critical number or density of susceptible hosts required for an epidemic to occur. The epidemic threshold is used to confirm the emergence of an epidemic so as to step-up appropriate control measures

  According to the definition, and by the CDC’s admission, we could be on the verge of a flu epidemic. This news comes on the heels of the CDC’s admission that this year’s flu vaccine might not be adequate for the strains we are seeing this flu season:

Flu vaccines may not adequately protect recipients from some of this flu season’s most common viral strains, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday.

A variety of flu strains can crop up during any given flu season, so vaccines are not inherently “one-shot-fits-all” in terms of protection. The CDC believes this year’s round of flu shots could be relatively ineffective against the types of flu seen so far this flu season, according to The Associated Press.

“One thing to understand about flu, always, is that it is unpredictable. Every season is different, with different flu viruses spreading and causing illness,” CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said in a phone conference Thursday. “Unfortunately, about half of the H3N2 viruses that we’ve analyzed this season are different from the H3N2 virus that’s included in this year’s flu vaccine. They’re different enough that we’re concerned that protection from H3N2 viruses may be lower than we usually see.”

  And yet do you see any sign that anyone is “stepping-up appropriate control measures?” I do not! During the 2004 campaign the Bush regime came under fire for a shortage of flu vaccines:

Mr. Bush spoke as the flu vaccine shortage moved to center stage in the campaign and as his secretary of health and human services, Tommy G. Thompson, said that Aventis Pasteur, the only company approved this year to sell flu vaccines, would be able to make the extra doses of flu vaccines available so the total would be about 58 million doses in all.

That figure is still just 60 percent of the expected demand this year for flu vaccine, but Mr. Thompson said at a news conference that those doses combined with stocks of anti-flu drugs would be enough to keep Americans safe.

  John Kerry jumped on this as proof that the Bush regime could not keep Americans safe, from either the flu or from bioterrorism:

Democrats have seized on the vaccine shortage to accuse the administration of being unable to protect Americans – from either illness or terrorism. “If you can’t get flu vaccines to Americans, how are you going to protect them against bioterrorism?” Senator John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, asked in an interview with National Public Radio. “If you can’t get flu vaccines to Americans, what kind of health care program are you running?”

  Some would argue that because there are enough flu vaccines to go around that these two issues are not comparable but I would beg to differ. I would argue that if the flu vaccines were adequate we would not be at the epidemic threshold. 

  Sure there are enough vaccines for the American people but what difference at this point does it matter if the vaccines which are provided do not adequately protect the American people?

  To quote John Kerry, “what kind of health care program are you running?” Yet this is a non-issue…