Learning the Lessons of Katrina

Learning the Lessons of Katrina

October 11, 2005

"It could kill a billion people worldwide, make ghost towns out of parts of major cities, and there is not enough medicine to fight it," ABC News reports. It is the avian flu, and if it were to reach U.S. shores, the nation's top health experts say it "would make the scenes of Katrina pale in comparison." According to Shelley Hearne, director of the nonprofit Trust for America's Health, it "would be like having a Category 5 viral hurricane hit every single state simultaneously." Moreover, say U.S. and United Nations health experts, it is no longer a question of whether the avian flu pandemic will hit, but when, and how severely. Not withstanding the potentially catastrophic impact of such a pandemic, or the high likelihood of its spread, the Bush administration has left Americans dangerously unprepared for a deadly outbreak.

• The Bush administration does not have a satisfactory plan to deal with an avian flu outbreak. A New York Times article last week reported that the Bush administration’s draft plan revealed that the U.S. is woefully unprepared. The plan details how a large outbreak would likely reach U.S. shores within a few months or even weeks. As many as 200,000 Americans could die within a few months.
  
  
• The administration’s response to New Orleans will pale in comparison to its reaction to the avian flu. Experts say that the administration’s lack of preparedness would cause hospitals to become overwhelmed, riots to engulf vaccination clinics, and even power and food to be in short supply. One would doubt that many poor Americans would be vaccinated.
  
  
• Is the administration’s HHS point man another Michael Brown? If the avian flu does reach the United States, the HHS official overseeing the response will be Stewart Simonson. Simonson’s resume is “disturbingly reminiscent” of that of disgraced former FEMA chief Michael Brown. He has no background in medicine, public health, or bioterrorism preparedness. His major accomplishment was serving as legal counsel to former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson and the former head of Health and Human Services – proving that if one once served as legal counsel, one is qualified for the most critical of positions in the country.