Today, President Bush gave a speech about Avian flu. He is asking the congress to give over $7,000,000,000 (seven billion dollars) of tax dollars to Avian flu preparedness. This money will go straight to the private sector, and if history is an indication, it will be through no-bid contracts. This is a completely illogical request and I will tell you why.
The President is saying that there could be a pandemic IF the Avian flu mutates to transmit from human to human. That is a big if. Unfortunately, a large part of his proposal is to stockpile medications. While this would be a huge boost to the bottom line of pharmaceutical companies, we have no way to know if these drugs would even work on a mutated stain of this illness. Bush is willing to accept another big IF here. He said these drugs “would likely offer some protection”. That is 1.2 billion dollars so that we can probably get some protection.
Then there is the money for training. President Bush wants us to go to countries all over the world and train them for preparedness. You know what happens when the US wants to train people in other countries? We pay Halliburton or another similar company to do it for us. While this would be great for the bottom line for these companies, the Bush Administration has proven this is an ineffective strategy over and over again for 5 years.
Then there is the $2.8 billion that is going straight into the pockets of private companies so that we can “accelerate development of cell culture technology” and bring “cell culture technology from the research laboratory into the production line”. Luckily Bush does want to “remove one of the greatest obstacles” to vaccine production. No, not the obvious obstacle of opening our borders to vaccines made in countries that we are partnering with and training, that other obstacle LITIGATION. That way, when these faulty vaccines that we pay for don’t work, or cost too much, or cause other problems, the companies have no liability.
That is right America, President Bush is proposing we give him $7,100,000,000 so that he can give it to private businesses (friends of his presumably) and we can get almost nothing in return. What a brilliant idea! Too bad we can read between the lines.
