"Long-Predicted Flu Finally Tops Agenda"

Read the full article by David Brown in The Washington Post.

Brown informs us that a flu pandemic plan was in draft in 1998, that HHS Secretary Thompson reviewed the status of such a plan on 9/11 2001, but a final plan was not published until last week. Apparently the anthrax scare and the SARS outbreak took precedence.

In 2003, NIH sought money to develop a pandemic flu vaccine, that request was cut back to $100 million by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and Congress ultimately appropriated $49.7 million. The process was being repeated in 2004, when the SARS epidemic scared the Congress into granting the OMB requested $100 million.

Secretary Leavitt, when he took over the HHS job was given John M. Barry's book, "The Great Influenza". He in turn gave the book to many people, including President Bush, who read it over the summer.

Now we have a lot of interest in a flu pandemic. Of course, there should be concern. Indeed, we would be in better condition today to face a possible epidemic had additonal prudent steps been taken two or three years ago to foster vaccine development and the development of vaccine production technology, to order antiviral drugs to stockpile, and to strengthen epidemiological surveillance systems.

Still, no one understands why the 1918 flu epidemic, described in Barry's book, was so much worse than others. I am not sure that I am happy that key policy makers who don't have public health experience are citing that book in justifying the current initiatives. And the timing of the Administration's interest, coming with Bush's approval ratings in the cellar and FEMA's dismal showing in the preparation and aftermaths of the hurricanes, raises my suspicions.