Can't They Do Anything Right?
Bush Administration and a flu pandemic


Joining the litany of failures to confront reality and accept responsibility is the Bush plan for a flu pandemic. See NYT Editorial: Perplexing Flu Plan for a complete listing of the problems in Bush's plans. Here is the opening paragraph:

The Bush administration deserves credit for issuing a comprehensive plan to combat pandemic influenza and for seeking $7.1 billion to get it started. But the lengthy document recently issued by the Department of Health and Human Services looks like a prescription for failure should a highly lethal flu virus start rampaging through the population in the next few years. The plan sets lofty goals but largely passes the buck on practical problems. The real responsibilities wind up on the shoulders of state and local health agencies and individual hospitals, none of which are provided with adequate resources to handle the job.

It sounds suspiciously like a face-saver plan, rather than an adequate one. Like a number of Bush "reforms," the federal government gives states the responsibilities but none of the resources.