Countries all across the globe are spending billions to contain outbreaks of a lethal flu virus and prepare for the next influenza pandemic. The U.S. federal government has budgeted over $7 billion to prepare for this inevitable disaster.

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Influenza pandemics are, like hurricanes and floods, natural disasters that can be planned for even though their exact arrival date is unknown. Influenza pandemics, unlike hurricanes and floods, are not local or regional events. They are global catastrophes that occur almost simultaneously. While the world has suffered a number of comparatively mild pandemics in the past 100 years, the real monster pandemic was in 1918, where the estimated death toll was between 60 and 100 million people, where an estimated 2.5% of the people infected died.

Now, there is a vicious influenza spreading around the world, first in birds and now in humans, that kills more than 60% of the people infected. Like all influenza viruses, it mutates constantly in its march across Asia, Africa and even Europe. Each mutation gives this virus the opportunity to further adapt itself to humans so that it can eventually become easily transmissible among people. Unlike 1918 when viruses were not even identified as organisms, the scientific community is watching this virus acquire the characteristics it needs to create a disaster of Biblical proportions. Scientists just don't know exactly when this virus will get everything it needs to wipe out a hundred million plus people over a two-year period.

Part of the U.S. federal government's pandemic program is to purchase anti-viral drugs at reduced costs and reimburse the states that purchase the anti-viral drugs for 25% of the cost. So, states can now build their stockpiles of anti-viral drugs at $14 per treatment instead of at the current cost of up to $100 per treatment.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist does not want to gamble with the lives of his citizens, so he asked the state legislature to spend $36.7 million for the stockpile of anti-viral drugs. The Florida Department of Health estimated that the pandemic could cause over 3 million residents to urgently require these medicines. If there is no state stockpile once a pandemic hits, it will be impossible to get these anti-viral medications.

Shockingly, Florida, the state with the fourth, and soon to have the third, largest population in the country, has refused to put this $36.7 million disaster preparation in its $70 billion state budget. Florida is the only state not participating in the federally subsidized program. Two state legislators are to blame for this anomaly, and for reasons that make no sense.

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Contact Marilyn Bardsley at marilyn.bardsley@turner.com

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