H5N1: The Plan

Yes, folks, the Bush administration has promised that by month's end it will have made public a plan for response to an outbreak of the H5N1, or Bird Flu, virus in the "United" States. Yep, that's right. By Halloween, we will know who in this country will get treated with our meager stockpile of Tamiflu. As I understand it, first responders (rightly, by the way) get first crack at it, but we don't yet have enough to treat 40% of that population, much less elderly and children or people with auto-immune problems.

Then there are the people who are probably ahead of the first responders, most of whom are of far less value to the nation than firefighters, police, and medical personnel. Anyone want to bet on Bush's chances of getting one? I suppose we should not risk any president under such circumstances, but Laura and the girls are of no value. Give their doses to doctors. Cheney is the only reason we even want Bush to get a dose, so Cheney and his family can forego doses. I suspect we'll need the extra officers, anyway. We could stand to lose a few blowhards on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers of Congress. Get doses to the entire court, though. Bush has gotten two appointments, and he doesn't need more. Governors and local officials must remember that they serve us, so they can get in line behind our cats if they want doses.

The simple truth is that Tamiflu may be the only thing that does anything to combat the H5N1 virus, but we have no idea when any pandemic may begin, specifically where it will begin (though Vietnam is the #1 suspect), and how quickly it may spread with migratory bird populations with respect to its detection as a form capable of human-to-human transmission. We can spot the virus, but if it has moved from Vietnam to Turkey before we realize that it can be passed easily amongst human, we're in one nasty shit house. Ah well. At least we'll have a plan.