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Bird flu planning: A prudent idea, or an overreaction by government?

WASHINGTON - Don't worry if you missed it when the Bush administration released its draft in August 2004 for fighting a potential flu pandemic. So did most of the rest of the country.

The draft generated fewer than 50 public comments for the Health and Human Services Department to consider when assembling the final plan, a top agency official said.

By comparison, the Food and Drug Administration reported last week that it received 2,268 comments about whether to make the "morning-after pill" available without a prescription.

The interest in bird flu has grown dramatically over the past 14 months. So much so that a few lawmakers are questioning whether official Washington is overreacting.

"I'm not a medical doctor or a public health specialist, and I'm not saying we should do nothing," Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn, said Friday at a congressional hearing, the third of the week on bird flu.

"In today's political climate, almost every threat is exaggerated, and legislators have to try do everything possible to prove that they're doing more than anyone else in case something does happen," Duncan said.

The administration took two days to roll out its plan last week. The president announced it and the next day, the health secretary gave more details.

HHS head Mike Leavitt makes clear during every speech that even if a pandemic does not strike, the investment and planning will be well worth it.

The result, according to Duncan, is that the United States is getting ready to spend billions of dollars on medicine that it is not sure will work in a pandemic, and people everywhere are so scared they are hoarding the antiviral medicine Tamiflu, which also may not work.

Duncan raises the issue of whether, in this post-Hurricane Katrina environment, lawmakers are trying to score political points or just doing their best to avoid a repeat of the carnage that can result from being unprepared for a natural disaster.

"I believe the American people want us to be safe rather than sorry," said Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

"They will forgive us for doing things and spending money that may turn out not to be necessary if, in fact, we are going forward vigorously to prevent what could be a horrible situation," Sanders said.

Leavitt said the investment in vaccine technology called for by the administration would save millions of lives in the long run, even if the bird flu virus never reaches the pandemic stage - when it spreads from person to person.

"This plan is not about H5N1 alone," Leavitt said, citing the name of the virus. "It's about general pandemic preparedness. And when we are finished implementing this plan, the United States of America will be a better and safer place."

The administration wants $7.1-billion in emergency spending. Democrats have sponsored legislation that calls for $8-billion.

A major pandemic could infect as much as a third of the population and kill as many as 1.9-million Americans, according to the administration.

JAKARTA, Indonesia - A 19-year-old woman died of bird flu in Indonesia and an 8-year-old boy from her family was hospitalized with the virus, officials said Saturday.

With concerns about a possible human bird flu pandemic rising around the globe, the World Bank said it was finalizing plans to provide up to $500-million to help poor countries fight the disease.

New cases of the virus in birds were reported in China and Vietnam last week.

The woman, from the town of Tangerang on the outskirts of the Indonesia capital Jakarta, was believed to have contracted the virus from infected dead chickens in her neighborhood. Her death brings the number of people killed by the disease in Indonesia to five, officials said.

A Hong Kong laboratory confirmed both victims had bird flu, but it was not immediately clear how the boy contracted the disease.

[Last modified November 6, 2005, 02:15:12]