Pelosi Statement on President’s Avian Flu Pandemic Preparedness Strategy

Pelosi Statement on President’s Avian Flu Pandemic Preparedness Strategy

Tuesday, November 1, 2005

Contact: Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. â€" House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on President Bush’s avian flu pandemic preparedness strategy, which was released this morning:

â€Å"The President has finally submitted an avian flu pandemic preparedness strategy -- several years too late. Everyone agrees that we are unprepared to deal with a pandemic; the President’s delay has cost Americans critical time in preparing for a pandemic. We can do better than this approach.

â€Å"House Democrats laid out criteria in an October 7 letter to the President for a comprehensive approach to avian flu. The President’s plan falls short in several key areas: inadequate funding to states, unfunded mandates, and no protection for people injured by the vaccines while manufacturers are given protection.

â€Å"Spending $100 million on state and local public health services, after cutting $130 million from their budgets, will leave our state and local heath agencies without the resources they need to protect communities in the event of a pandemic. The strategy does not provide funding for contingency planning and the capacity to handle a huge influx of new patients. Forcing states to purchase more than $500 million worth of antiviral drugs without helping states bolster their public health systems places a huge unfunded mandate upon states and localities â€" potentially forcing local governments to cut other critical initiatives. And the Administration is advocating liability protection to vaccine makers, but is depriving those injured by the vaccine from fair compensation.

â€Å"The President’s strategy recognizes that we need to increase domestic capacity to manufacture influenza vaccines and antiviral medications, and it recognizes that the United States needs to play a leading role in the international community. But overall, there are significant gaps in this plan, and much more must be done to protect the American people.

â€Å"Democrats stand ready to work with our Republican counterparts to ensure that our response to this crisis is adequate and that states have the necessary resources for their public health programs. We must work quickly to get our nation prepared for a flu pandemic.”