WASHINGTON - President Bush warned
Americans yesterday there is a possibility that a
deadly influenza pandemic could break out around
the world and said the nation should spend $7.1
billion to prepare for it.
By acting now, he said, "We can give
our citizens some peace of mind, knowing that our
nation is ready to act at the first sign of danger
and that we have the plans in place to prevent
and, if necessary, withstand an influenza
pandemic."
He also said Congress must curtail lawsuits
against vaccine manufacturers, saying lawsuits
have contributed to low profits and insufficient
research and production of vaccines.
But his proposal for giving vaccine makers
liability protection drew fire from the
Association of Trial Lawyers of America, which
said Mr. Bush's claim that lawsuits keep down
vaccine production is untrue.
Mr. Bush gathered together five Cabinet
secretaries, including Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice, and many of the country's top
health officials for a speech at the National
Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., to stress
the need for action.
Because a new bird flu has broken out in
Southeast Asia, he said the threat to America is
serious but not imminent.
In an immediate response on Capital Hill,
Democrats said that while the details of Mr.
Bush's strategy won't be released to them until
today, the plan seems to be a drop in the bucket
because it would only cover 15 percent of the
population. They said people hurt by new vaccines
should be compensated.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D., N.Y.) said,
"Well, the good news is that the administration
has acted and recognized that an ounce of
prevention is truly worth a pound of cure. The bad
news is that they've acted late, they've acted too
little, and they have not recognized that simply
having vaccine available doesn't mean it will get
where it's needed."
Government research and plans in the event of a
pandemic and Mr. Bush's newly proposed strategy
are found on the Internet at www.pandemicflu.gov.
His strategy is aimed at quick detection of the
spread of a new strain of bird-borne flu,
including spending $250 million abroad for keeping
tabs on the spread of the virus, stockpiling
antivirals that reduce severe symptoms, funding
research on new vaccines, and rapid response at
all levels of government if the nation is hit.
The current strain of avian flu, known as H5N1,
was first detected in late 2003, spreading among
thousands of birds in Southeast Asia. So far it
has infected 121 people in Thailand, Cambodia,
Vietnam and Indonesia, killing 62. It has now
begun to spread to Europe. Studies are under way
on whether 33 ducks in Canada have the deadly
strain.
Mr. Bush said that while avian flu has a
fatality rate of about 50 percent in humans, "at
this point we do not have evidence that a pandemic
is imminent." Most of those who were sickened had
handled infected birds, he said. There are no
reports of any infected birds or people in the
United States.
Pandemic influenzas have struck three times in
the past century. The 1918 outbreak killed more
than 20 million people. There were pandemics in
1957 and in 1968, killing millions around the
world and tens of thousands of Americans.
Mr. Bush said that the flu also causes economic
chaos. He noted that the SARS outbreak that struck
the Asian Pacific region three years ago cost at
least $40 billion, including reduced airplane
traffic to affected countries. The current
outbreak means huge poultry populations must be
killed.
Noting that he already has had his flu shot for
protection against normal seasonal flu this year,
Mr. Bush said that a pandemic would overwhelm the
quantity and type of vaccines now available.
In arguing that the nation needs to spend more
than $7 billion to get ready for a pandemic, he
did not say where the money would come from.
Democrats complained that Mr. Bush's new plan
is not adequate. While some countries, including
Japan and France, have enough of the Tamiflu
vaccine, which eases symptoms, for one-fourth of
their people, the United States has enough for 2
percent.
Sen. Barack Obama (D, Ill.) said, "Let me just
say: Mr. President, the United States cannot
afford to have a Katrina-level preparedness or a
Katrina-like response to an international outbreak
of avian flu. With so many warnings and so much
knowledge of the threat we face, there's no excuse
for failure this time around."
Democrats have their own proposals pending.
They also want to spend $600 million to improve
public health infrastructure and $2 billion for
antiviral medicine for half the U.S. population,
not just for 20 million people as Mr. Bush is
seeking.
Contact Ann McFeatters
at:
amcfeatters@nationalpress.com
or
202-662-7071.
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