Another failure to protect US

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said this morning that the U.S. is unprepared for the next flu pandemic.

Part of the transcript from Meet the Press this morning:
“We're not as prepared as we need to be. We're better prepared today than we were yesterday. We'll be better prepared tomorrow. It's a continuum of preparation.” Huh?
“What we all learned from Katrina is that sometimes we have to think very clearly about the unthinkable, because the unthinkable often happens. There were lessons to be learned. That's just one of them.” Huh?
“I first want to make certain that we're clear that we will not have the capacity to produce 300 million doses of a vaccine for three to five years.. And consequently, very difficult, agonizingly tough decisions will need to be made, and so the plan actually develops a series, using outside panels of those who are involved in medical ethics and so forth, to say, "Here's how we would recommend it." Huh?
“Well, the federal government needs to respond in helping them (states and local communities) become prepared, but ultimately the preparation needs to result in the capacity for state and local governments to make their decisions, school communities, mayors determining whether parades need to--can occur.” Huh?

Quite re-assuring isn't it?

According to Dr. Michael Ryan of the World Health Organization, “Well, this is certainly a dangerous virus and it has crossed the species barrier now in 130 cases, and killed 67 of those unfortunate people. The disease itself has the potential, the avian flu strain has the potential to become a pandemic strain. It is very worrying that we see this virus transmitting across the species barrier into humans, and the virus itself is evolving, and we are probably closer to a pandemic at any time in the last 37 years since the last outbreak in '68.”

Some more here.
Posted on The Human Stain