I think a pandemic flu virus is as much of a threat, if not more so, as Osama Bin Ladin and Al Qaeda to American lives. Indeed, in terms its potential to harm and kill Americans, and wreck havoc with the world’s economy, I’d say it’s a greater threat. Yet we just spent the last eight years spending hundreds of billions of dollars fighting a war in Iraq to protect us from the “terrorists” who attacked us on 9/11 and the threat of even worse attacks using weapons of mass destruction (the official reasons) while this year Republican senators (specifically Susan Collins, but really every Republican who voted against the Stimulus package) killed a provision to fund 900 million dollars for preparation for flu pandemics. You have to wonder about the priorities of the Republicans. Public health is a job only government, at the local, state and federal levels, can perform. If only to help Donald Rumsfeld make money off his investment in the company that makes Tamiflu you’d think they’d be on board with doing whatever possible to save American lives.
But then I remembered the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and I realized the health and welfare of living, breathing ordinary Americans just isn’t that important to them.
