Kent Conrad: “I am offering an amendment on avian flu. I offered this same amendment in the committee because after testimony by…”

“I am offering an amendment on avian flu. I offered this same amendment in the committee because after testimony by Secretary Leavitt before the Committee on the Budget, we are clearly still unprepared to meet any potential pandemic. Here is what the U.N. said on March 9: ``Bird flu is likely to spread to birds in the United States within six months and could produce an epidemic among humans `at any time,' said a U.N. official. The prediction by David Nabarro was the first by a top global health official pinpointing when birds carrying the flu will arrive in the lower 48 States.'' He went on to say, and I hope my colleagues and their staffs are listening: ``There will be a pandemic sooner or later,'' Nabarro said. ``It could start any time. We have a virus capable of replicating inside humans. We have a virus that humans are not resistant to. We have a virus about which we don't understand everything.'' The administration's assessment of what could happen if there were a pandemic is truly sobering. I will discuss the Bush administration estimates of possible consequences from avian flu pandemic. In terms of illness, if it were severe, 90 million people could be affected in this country. The requirement for outpatient medical care: 45 million people. Colleagues, we are totally unprepared for something of this magnitude. Hospitalization, if it were severe, 9.9 million people in this country would require hospitalization.…”