Bush Requests $7.1 Billion
To Prepare for Flu Pandemic

Associated Press
November 1, 2005 1:02 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush, warning that the U.S. is at risk in a
possible world-wide flu outbreak, said Tuesday he is asking Congress
for $7.1 billion to prepare for a possible flu pandemic, including $1.2
billion to stockpile vaccines to protect 20 million Americans against
the current strain of bird flu.

The president also called on Congress to approve liability protection
for the makers of lifesaving vaccines. Mr. Bush said no one knows when
or where a deadly strain of flu will strike, but "at some point we are
likely to face another pandemic." He said "the growing burden of
litigation" is one of the main obstacles to production.

The president, in a speech at the National Institutes of Health, said
the U.S. must be prepared to detect outbreaks anywhere in the world,
stockpile vaccines and antiviral drugs and be ready to respond at the
federal, state and local levels in the event a pandemic reaches the
U.S.

Mr. Bush outlined a strategy that would cost $7.1 billion including:

· $1.2 billion for the government to buy enough doses of the vaccine
against the current strain of bird flu to protect 20 million Americans;

· $1 billion to stockpile more antiviral drugs that lessen the
severity of the flu symptoms;

· $2.8 billion to speed the development of vaccines as new strains
emerge, a process that now takes months;

· $583 million for states and local governments to prepare emergency
plans to respond to an outbreak.

President Bush said that global transparency is necessary and that
countries must immediately share information when cases develop and
provide samples to the World Health Organization. The U.S. set up a new
Web site (www.pandemicflu.gov3) on pandemic flu and avian influenza.

"At this moment there is no pandemic influenza in the United States or
the world, but if history is our guide there's reason to be concerned,"
Mr. Bush said. "In the last century, our country and the world have
been hit by three influenza pandemics, and viruses from birds
contributed to all of them."

He pointed out that the 1918 pandemic killed over a half million
Americans and more than 20 million people across the globe. "One-third
of the U.S. population was infected, and life expectancy in our country
was reduced by 13 years. "The 1918 pandemic was followed by pandemics
in 1957 and 1968, which killed tens of thousands of Americans and
millions across the world," Mr. Bush said.

Bird flu has been documented in Asia and has spread to Europe but
hasn't reached the U.S., the president said. "Our country has been
given fair warning of this danger to our homeland and time to prepare,"
he said.

The H5N1 strain of avian flu has killed millions of birds in Asia and
has recently spread to Europe. It has infected more than 120 people and
killed 62 in Southeast Asia, but the human cases have been linked to
those who've had close and frequent contact with dead birds, a point
the president stressed in an attempt to defuse panic about a human
pandemic in the U.S.

Earlier, Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said that
there is a possibility that a pandemic would force restrictions on
international travel and commerce -- one reason the president's plan
stresses improved vaccine manufacturing in the U.S. Today, most of the
world's vaccine against regular winter flu, including much of that used
by Americans each flu season, is manufactured in factories in Britain
and Europe.

The U.S. has signed contracts with Sanofi-Aventis and Chiron Corp. to
produce vaccines based on the H5N1 avian strain. The U.S. hopes to have
enough vaccines to protect 20 million Americans and enough antivirals
for another 20 million. Mr. Bush said vaccine makers would have to
perfect the cell-culture process in order to produce enough vaccine to
protect all Americans, or roughly 300 million people.

China Pledges Openness

Meanwhile, China said it has learned from its mistakes in the SARS
outbreak and pledged complete openness to help prevent a global
outbreak of bird flu.

China was heavily criticized during the 2003 outbreak of severe acute
respiratory syndrome for initially covering up the illness. Now Beijing
says it is committed to quickly investigating and reporting possible
bird-flu cases to the public and world-health groups. "From SARS, we
see that no ... information can be hidden," China's disease-control
director Qi Xiaoqiu said Monday through a translator while visiting the
U.S. "We have policies to encourage farmers to report possible
outbreaks." Mr. Qi said China has provided subsidies for farmers who
quickly report sick birds to authorities.

Chinese health officials have also signed a memo of understanding on
U.S.-China cooperation with U.S. Health chief Mike Leavitt. China's
biggest drug maker, Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group, has also contacted
Roche Holding AG about sublicensing the right to make Tamiflu.

China has reported three bird-flu outbreaks in poultry over the past
month. No human cases have been reported.

Fighting Bird Flu Could Cost $102 Million

Meanwhile, Pacific Rim health officials met in Australia for a second
day Tuesday to discuss ways to fight the virus.

In Brisbane, a United Nations official said fighting bird flu in
impoverished Southeast Asian nations could cost US$102 million over the
next two to three years.

"If the disease spreads from eastern Europe into Africa, then just for
emergency support we'll require an additional US$75 million," said
Subhash Morvaria from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's
regional office in Bangkok, Thailand.

Mr. Morvaria urged nations to fight the disease in birds as a first
line of defense against it mutating into a human flu virus that could
trigger a deadly global pandemic. "As long as the disease remains in
the domestic poultry sector, there is going to be a threat to humans.
So the focus has to be in the animals. Even if a pandemic occurs, the
problem will not go away as long as the disease remains in domestic
poultry," he said.

Meanwhile, signs of bird flu were detected at a duck farm in western
Japan. Tests on ten ducks suspected of bird flu showed they were
infected with an H4 strain of the virus, which has no history of human
transmission, according to Katsunori Tanaka, an Osaka livestock farming
official. However, officials were still testing another 47 ducks at the
same farm, after preliminary tests showed some of the birds may be
infected, Mr. Tanaka said.

The latest case follows the announcement Monday that authorities
detected signs of bird flu at a farm in northern Japan and planned to
kill 82,000 chickens.

In Canada, senior government officials said Monday that nearly three
dozen wild ducks from the provinces of Quebec and Manitoba have tested
positive for H5 influenza, though further tests will be required to
determine if it is the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus. None of the
ducks is ill, said Jim Clark, of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency,
at a news conference.

Copyright © 2005 Associated Press

Maybe Bush should raise the Homescam Security Alert.  You never know when
the Avian Flu may use a WMD and hate the US for their 'freedom'.