On November 1,2005, President Bush outlined a $7.1 Billion strategy to prepare for a 'bird flu' outbreak. Prior, CNN had been airing 'filler' segments insinuating Mr. Bush wasn't paying attention to the threat and AP 'analysts' immediately stated they doubted it would be enough money.
President Bush spoke of tort (liability) reform in the 2004 election and it resonated. Nothing significant has yet passed in Congress.
$7.1 Billion might not be enough to control a pandemic. The US doesn't have a panoptic drug manufacturing system, certainly not pandemic-ready. Dollars don't always make the difference (today's politicians portray dollars as compassion), but they do attract the vultures.
We have seen what happens to a sue-happy society; companies stop producing medicine because 'liability' has turned into a dollars, creating a potentially large cost for all Americans. Creativity is crippled by self-inflicted circumstances, then a complex problem comes along... and we have no near-term solutions.
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But according to the guy who was on OPRAH they asked for more (as I recall) and this is what they are getting. And one reason they need more is that we are on an as needed basis right now with meds. Apparently most or all of our meds are out sourced to other countries, and even if it is just one segment of the making of them that falls we end up with a shortage.
here is the link
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200601/tows_past_20060124.jhtml
The guy on OPRAH said that we not only need to stock pile food and water... but meds which is basically impossible. There is not enough made on a yearly basis. Oh and there are two fly remedies that no longer work, they had a 90 percent effectiveness and this years strain took that to 3 percent. But he said we would be on our own for about a year without a vaccine.
It was good, I taped it. Very interesting.
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