I Got Your Bird Flu Plan Right Here!

"There is no pandemic flu in our country, or in the world, at this time,"—George W. Bush

The bird flu, though a potential large-scale danger, is not impending. An epidemic of overreaction by Marc Siegel, L.A. Times 10/11/05

President Bush outlined a $7.1 billion strategy Tuesday to prepare for the danger of a pandemic influenza outbreak, saying he wanted to stockpile enough vaccine to protect 20 million Americans against the current strain of bird flu as a first wave of protection.

The president also said the United States must approve liability
protection for the makers of lifesaving vaccines.--MSNBC 11/1/05

Some elements of Bush's plan, which would not begin until 2010, are
expected to be controversial.For example, it would protect vaccine manufacturers from liability lawsuits but offer no compensation for individuals who suffered serious reactions to a vaccine.--L.A. Times 11/2/05

$7.1 Billion with no product liability—special interest political contributions, and in this case, the ultra-powerful pharmaceutical lobby in Wasington, pays off big time. Imagine G.M. making a car with no manufacturer liability? You’d have the entire top floor of headquarters in Detroit drenched in pants-pee. Yet that’s just what government, in this case the Bush tyranny, always proposes for the poor downtrodden drug-makers (I jest), in order to give them incentive to produce these ineffective and possibly harmful products for a fear-mongered public. In fact, this is nothing but a cash cow bought and paid for by that very taxpaying public, for those very profit-rich, and getting richer, drug companies.

"It's like predicting the Big One in California," said Dr. Arnold S. Monto, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan and a former president of the American Epidemiological Society. "We are overdue for another pandemic. But we don't know when it will hit."…

…Monto said genetic changes that made the virus easily transmissible could just as easily decrease its virulence."If it was easy for this to happen, it would have happened already," Monto said.He estimated the chances of an H5N1 pandemic at no more than 5%.—A Flu Pandemic is Expected to Happen Sooner or Later by Charles Pillar, L.A. Times 11/2/05

Speaking for the American Constitution Society on Sunday, November 9, 2003, Former Vice President Al Gore charged President George W. Bush's administration with a determination to "use fear as a political tool to consolidate its power and to escape any accountability for its use." [emphasis added]—Sourcewatch.com