Safeguarding America Against Pandemic Influenza

President Bush has announced a strategy against flu.According to the New York Times:

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 anti-viral 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.''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,'' 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.''

Owen comments: It is terrific that the US Government is rising to the challenge of supporting the vaccine industry to tackle vital public health priorities. A tiny proportion of this investment could save millions of lives a year in poor countries which result from diseases for which we do not have vaccines, such as malaria and HIV, and from diseases for which we do have vaccines but they are too expensive, such as Hepatitis B, Hib. When our own lives are under threat, we understand the need.