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September 16, 2005

ABV

Hugh Hewitt is talking bird flu and presidential accountability.

The buck will again stop on the president's desk, though, and he knows it. I hope he has communicated to all involved that he wants a plan on his desk on the hour by hour response once (Avian Bird Flu) reaches the US.

Agreed. FluWiki is an interesting experiment in on-line collaboration to prepare for ABF. However, private sector for-profit and collaborative responses to ABF amount to nothing politically. When it strikes and if we aren't prepared, the President will be blamed. If you think the Katrina blame game was bad, just wait...

UPDATE: This ABC News article makes discussion of the political implications of a bird flu pandemic look awefully petty (HT: Drudge).

It could kill a billion people worldwide, make ghost towns out of parts of major cities, and there is not enough medicine to fight it.
...
"Right now in human beings, it kills 55 percent of the people it infects," says Laurie Garrett, a senior fellow on global health policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. "That makes it the most lethal flu we know of that has ever been on planet Earth affecting human beings."
...
"The lack of advanced planning up until the moment in the United States, in the sense of not having a huge stockpile I think your citizens deserve, has surprised me and has dismayed me," [professor John Oxford of the Royal London Hospital] admits.

Politics aside - the President must make this the nation's top priority. When the ABF mutates to allow human-to-human transmission, it will bring a ~50% mortality rate. The potential threat to this country is far far greater than any act of terrorism I can imagine.

Posted by Rick at September 16, 2005 10:50 AM

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» Avian Flu Virus -- Breaking Out Into Our Collective Consciousness from OKIE on the LAM™ -- In LA
In his speech to the U.N. this week, President Bush discussed the potential of a world-wide pandemic that could be caused by the H5N1 virus, known as the Avian Flu. In a news article today, Avian Flu: Is the Government Ready for an Epidemic? ABC News p... [Read More]

Tracked on September 16, 2005 07:50 PM

Comments

Posted by: Dan Trabue at September 16, 2005 02:18 PM