The following are excerpts from "The Clock Is Ticking," by the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, which was released on October 21, 2009.
You can get a copy of this bipartisan report from: http://www.preventwmd.gov/the_clock_is_ticking_a_progress_report_on_americas_preparedness/
For the convenience of skimmers, I've highlighted key passages.
What the Commission Report reveals is that the current Admininstration deliberately underfunded -- by a factor of TEN -- the government agency charged with preparing vaccines and drugs for influenza outbreaks, including H1N1,
It is not the base fault of big pharma. Government and tort lawyers drove them out of the vaccine R&D business years ago. Pharma makes little money on vaccines, so the must await the proper "recipes" and production methods being developed in government (or government-sponsored) labs.
While President ONero fiddles with health care delivery, he has deliberately underfunded influenza and bioterrorism preparedness. Why do that? Today, he invoked special powers that allow government to make health care workers leave their home areas and be reassigned to other areas, even if they are not licensed in the new area. It enforces quarantine measures, in which you can be imprisoned in your home, regardless of your symptoms, and left unable to work or to support your family.
More importantly, it creates yet another pretext of a crisis that allows the Administration minions to scare people into ceding even more rights in the lust to create public health care.
The key finding of the study is that Obama, Pelosi, and Reid have chosen to ignore bioterrorism and influenza preparedness. The motivations for this failure will become apparent as time progresses.
Now, for excerpts of "The Clock Is Ticking":
The threat of bioterrorism is
real. In December 2008, the Commission
concluded that terrorists are more likely to be able to obtain and
use a biological weapon than a nuclear weapon. This finding is not
singular: In recent years, the United States has received strategic
warnings of biological weapons use from dozens of government
reports and expert panels.
The consequences of ignoring these warnings could be dire. ...
Yet the nation’s level of preparedness for dealing with the
threat of bioterrorism remains far lower than that of the nuclear
threat.
Even as many efforts to improve the country’s biopreparedness (on nuclear threats) move forward, other steps have threatened progress or have actually set back biopreparedness (on bioterrorism).
[Under the Obama Administration] two programs set up to develop and purchase medicines to prevent and respond to biological, radiological, or nuclear attacks [under the Bush Administration] have been inadequately funded, and have also had to weather attempts to raid their funding.
One is the Department of HHS Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which leads an integrated, systematic approach to the development and purchase of the necessary vaccines, drugs, therapies, and diagnostic tools for public health medical emergencies. The other is Project BioShield, which funds medical countermeasures against biological, chemical, radiological, and nuclear agents.
Drugs and vaccines needed for emerging, biological, chemical, and radiological threats will not be developed solely by the private sector without governmental support. BARDA is key to the development and stockpiling of (these drugs and vaccines, which) are deemed to be essential for the protection of civilians against biothreats.
(The BARDA) mission is to make sure that the nation is prepared with drugs and medical countermeasures not only for influenza, but for other emerging diseases, as well as chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear public health threats.
BARDA has been working hard to prepare the nation for flu, hiring top talent, and partnering effectively with the private sector. However, it has received little funding for the rest of its mission.
The outgoing Bush Administration requested $969 million in additional funding for BARDA. That funding could and should have been included in the stimulus package but was not.
The Obama Administration’s request for BARDA in FY 2010 was only $305 million. That is insufficient by a factor of 10.
[T]he Obama Administration does not agree with the Commission’s assessment of the biological threat. The Commission recommends that a senior political appointee with extensive biodefense and public health background be assigned to the NSC staff, that funding for BARDA be increased, and that domestic and international disease surveillance be improved.
It is critical to have a senior official with direct access to the President to direct and promote nonproliferation interests. In the Commission’s judgment no such person has been designated.
The refusal of the nation’s elected representatives to pull congressional authority together into one coherent oversight body is both self-serving and conspicuous, suggesting that individual concerns for “turf” supersede the legislature’s willingness to assume responsibility to ensure our security.
The WMD Commission and the 9/11 Commission both recommended that the Senate and House Homeland Security Committees should be the sole authorizing committees for the Department of Homeland Security and all agencies under the Department’s jurisdiction. Congress’s failure to heed this recommendation—or even attempt to do so—underscores our conclusion that Congress simply lacks the will to do what is both obvious and necessary ....
So, it is clear that the current government is engaged in
some form of gamesmanship. The gamesmanship is aimed at
forcing government-run health care, at the expense of citizens'
health and lives. This is arrogant and repulsive.
It doesn't bother me one whit when lefties shriek about current
vaccines, including H1N1, being "unsafe" and refusing to
get them. That means more for the rest of us, and fewer nut
jobs around to vote in future elections.
Of course, a reader always can read the Commission's Report and prepare a rebuttal. I encourage this and would be interested in seeing other ***informed*** views.
