Adam Schiff: “in the midst of a press conference this past Tuesday, President Bush responded to a question relating to a possible…”

“in the midst of a press conference this past Tuesday, President Bush responded to a question relating to a possible outbreak of avian flu here in the United States by stating that he was considering the use of the American military to enforce quarantine measures in cases of a pandemic. While a number of public health experts and civil liberties advocates quickly criticized the President for suggesting that the military be deployed to control a flu outbreak, his public musing about the need for such a drastic step was a strong and long overdue indication that the U.S. Government is beginning to take seriously the prospect of a flu pandemic. For several years now, epidemiologists and public health officials have been warning of a possible global pandemic of bird flu that could rival or surpass the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic that killed as many as 50 million people worldwide. We have been fortunate that none of the existing strains of avian flu that have infected thousands of birds and some 65 people in 11 countries have mutated into a form that can spread from human to human; but that threat is real, and there is growing evidence that we do not have much time to prepare. This week's issues of the journals Nature and Science have published the results of work done at the U.S. Armed Forces Institute of Pathology here in Maryland that shows that the 1918 Spanish flu was actually a type of bird flu and was similar to the flu now affecting Asia.…”