Avian Flu

'œSometimes a president's summer reading can change lives,' said The Philadelphia Inquirer in an editorial. Back in August, George W. Bush picked up The Great Influenza, John M. Barry's eye-opening look at the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, which killed at least 50 million worldwide. 'œThe narrative jolted him into action.' Last week, Bush announced a national strategy to combat the avian flu, which has killed 60 people and now threatens to spread around the globe. The proposal calls for $7.1 billion in preparation and prevention, mainly to develop vaccines and stockpile anti-flu drugs. Critics have 'œdetected a whiff of desperation' in the president's announcement, said the Los Angeles Times in an editorial. Not only is his administration late in recognizing the very real risk of a bird flu pandemic, he seems overeager to show some leadership at a time when public confidence in him is plummeting. At least, though, he's got a plan.

Unfortunately, said The Boston Globe in an editorial, 'œNew Orleans had a plan too.' Bush's bird flu blueprint says virtually nothing about how we'd actually mobilize federal and state health-care agencies to combat an outbreak. Other nations already have detailed, step-by-step plans in place, should the deadly bird flu mutate and enter the human population. If 'œa viral Katrina' hits the U.S. in the next year, it will be New Orleans all over again—but with a death toll in the hundreds of thousands, instead of the hundreds.

Cory Franklin

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Robert Weinstein

Chicago Tribune