The "swine flu" label has largely been replaced by the "H1N1 virus" when describing the current flu outbreak, but Iowa politicians at all levels of government still had to spend time this week emphasizing the safety of pork products in the wake of foreign import bans.
A top concern: bans by China and Russia, two of the world's top importers of pork.
A bipartisan congressional delegation including U.S. Senators Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley this week sent a letter to President Obama asking his help to combat unfounded concerns that are impeding the pork trade in domestic and export markets.
In the letter, they said initial references to the H1N1 virus as "swine flu" have created fears that pork can transmit this virus, dealing a blow to an already struggling U.S. pork industry.
"Unfortunately, several U.S. trading partners have already notified the United States government of new import restrictions on U.S. pork, and at least one country has extended their ban to meat from other species as well," the letter said. "There is no evidence to justify the imposition of measures to restrict the importation of pigs and pork products."
The letter asks Obama, along with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, to continue to place a high priority on maintaining access to pork and meat export markets around the world.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey said farmers were being impacted by the import bans. China has banned pork imports from dozens of U.S. states, U.S. Department of Agriculture officials said this week. Officials said no reason was given for the bans, but the H1N1 virus is suspected to be the cause.
"Iowa pork, and all pork for that matter, is safe, and China and the other countries that are banning pork imports are not acting based on science," Northey said. "It is unfortunate that these unjustified actions are being felt most dramatically by the farmers who raise pork. The industry has already been facing very difficult economics for the last several months, and this just adds to the difficulties experienced by Iowa's pork producers."
Iowa Lab Takes on Role Testing Flu
Confirmation of probable cases of the H1N1 virus can now be done in Iowa at the University Hygienic Laboratory instead of being sent to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, state epidemiologist Patricia Quinlisk announced this week.
"We believe this will really help Iowa in quickly turning around these laboratory specimens," Quinlisk said during an hour-long live presentation on H1N1 over the Iowa Communications Network and the Web.
The change comes as the CDC is getting swamped with probable cases nationwide, and is taking several days to confirm them. A second United States death has occurred in Texas, and as of Friday morning there were more than 1,600 confirmed cases nationwide. No vaccine is available, although the CDC is hoping to make one available by this fall. Late this week the state said Iowa had 35 probable cases and five confirmed cases of the H1N1 flu.
The state has relaxed its guidelines on school closures due to the flu: Future school closures will now follow regular flu guidelines, only applying to schools in which more than 10 percent of students are out on a given day with flu symptoms. Quinlisk said preemptive school closures will delay but not stop the spread of disease. She said closures are a burden on working single parents, and do economic damage to communities.
"It is not something that is done lightly," Quinlisk said of school closures. "Now that we believe this virus is milder than what we first feared," the state can be cautious without being overly burdensome or creating too many barriers.
Meanwhile, the Iowa Electronic Health Market (IEhM) has opened several new markets to track and forecast trends in the current flu outbreak. The Iowa Electronic Markets draw attention during election season, as they're used as a tool to predict election results.
Initial offerings in the market serve to forecast information on how long the current outbreak will last in the United States, how many U.S. states will be affected, how many cases will be confirmed, what the mortality rate will be among confirmed cases, and how many other countries will be affected.
"To date, the IEhM has run markets to predict seasonal influenza activity at a state level and also the number of avian-influenza cases," said Forrest Nelson, an economics professor at the University of Iowa's Tippie College of Business and the IEhM's director. "Both of these markets have provided accurate and timely infectious-disease forecasts."
Court System Skips a Furlough Day
Iowa Chief Justice Marsha Ternus this week canceled the fifth of eight scheduled court-furlough days, leaving courthouses in Iowa's 99 counties open on Friday.
Ternus explained that the eight furlough days were scheduled when the legislature and governor cut the judicial budget by $3.8 million. But with a new bill signed into law Monday, the Supreme Court can now order judges to take unpaid leave. And under Senate File 478, which has yet to be signed by Iowa Governor Chet Culver, the judicial branch would receive a supplemental appropriation of $760,000 in the current fiscal year.
"Approval of Senate File 472 and Senate File 478 will enable the court to adjust the judicial-branch operating budget for the remainder of Fiscal Year '09," Ternus wrote. "Including judges and magistrates in court-closure days will allow the court to eliminate one of the four remaining closure days."
Ternus said if Culver signs Senate File 478, the court will be able to cancel two more closure days originally scheduled for June 5 and 19, making it necessary to have only one court-closure and unpaid-leave day between now and June 30. That final furlough day would be May 22, she said.
Signing of the bill would mean court-cost and fee increases. Civil filing fees would go from $100 to $185; filing an appeal from small claims would be increased to $185 from $75; and the fee for a court reporter would be raised from $15 a day to $40 a day.
Criminal penalty surcharges would be increased from 32 percent to 35 percent of the amount of the fine or forfeiture imposed. Culver has until May 26 to act on the legislation, at which point the fee changes would take immediate effect.
Some Lawmakers, Administrators Skeptical of New School-Nutrition Rules
Iowa's Healthy Kids Act of 2008 has been championed as a way of stemming or even turning back the tide on a wave of obesity. But some lawmakers and school administrators say they aren't convinced these new nutrition and physical activity standards will have any effect, and even feel singled out by the government action.
"Absolutely I have concerns with it," said Urbandale Superintendent Greg Robinson. "I think I certainly understand the intent, but I think the concern that I have is that I've never really believed that kids were becoming obese based on what they were eating at schools."
Nearly one in five school-age children is obese, according to data from the National Health & Nutrition Examination Survey, a problem that has been developing over at least the past 30 years. From 1976 to 2006, obesity in children aged six to 11 increased from 6.5 percent to 17 percent, while obesity in ages 12 to 19 jumped from 5 percent to 17.6 percent.
The new rules set standards for calories, sodium, fat, and sugar in foods provided through vending machines, à la carte programs, and regulated fundraising, but they do not regulate school breakfast or lunch programs, concessions, other fundraising efforts, or food provided by parents or staff. The rules also set guidelines for physical activity.
Robinson, who's also a member of the Board of Educational Examiners, said many schools have already implemented some of the requirements in the rules, which were approved 7-2 by the Iowa State Board of Education. He said his district has already eliminated some "questionable food content" in à la carte lines, and it's been years since students were able to buy soft drinks in their buildings.
"This was oversight that I didn't think was necessary, because our people had been proactive," Robinson said. "I think we've done a good job of policing this ourselves. Again, this only applies to during the school day, so you'll still be able to go to an activity at night and get whatever. I just find it interesting, I guess."
The new rules also provide that grade-schoolers must participate in physical activity for a minimum of 30 minutes each day, while high schoolers must do so for 120 minutes a week. The third major provision mandates that all students must have completed a CPR course at some time prior to graduation.
Representative Scott Raecker (R-Urbandale) has opposed the legislation from the outset. Before the State Board of Education tweaked some of the rules, yogurt would have been unavailable in schools around the state, something Raecker spoke out against. But even with that changed, he still has reservations about the rules and sees a certain amount of hypocrisy from legislators.
"The yogurt is just one positive step," Raecker said. "I don't think that was the intention of the legislature when we passed the legislation. Very honestly I'm still very disappointed that we are enacting something for school kids that we ourselves as legislators are not willing to abide by. The legislature had an opportunity at the time this was passed to pass a law as a part of the law that legislators would abide by the same rules in the cafeteria, and that they would exercise 30 minutes a day, and we didn't do that."
One concern raised about the new rules is how they could impact schools financially. Much of the money from regulated fundraising, such as à la carte lines and vending machines, goes directly to schools for necessary programs, and in tough financial times other sources of income could be tough to come by.
"It's always a balancing act, but when you think about the importance of good nutrition and teaching children good eating habits I think that far outweighs the fundraising potential," said Representative Cindy Winckler (D-Davenport). "We need to keep our eye on the ball there and realize that it is in no way trying to impede anyone's entrepreneurial opportunities or food choices, but the fact that we have made available a lot of the junk foods in the name of fundraising in our buildings, we just have to shift gears and figure out a different way to fund the important programs."
School districts have been given extra time to prepare for the changes. While standards for physical activity will begin this fall, the State Board of Education voted to implement the new nutrition standards in the 2010 school year - instead of the proposed 2009 start date - and the CPR standards beginning with the graduating class of 2011.
This weekly summary comes from IowaPolitics.com, an online government and politics news service. IowaPolitics.com staff contributed to this report.
