Senator Durell Peaden, chairman of the state Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee, claims he refused the purchase of the anti-viral drugs because they have a shelf-life of five years. Representative Aaron Bean, the chairman of the state House Heathcare Council, rejected the governor's request on similar grounds.

 

However, the facts are at odds with the explanations for refusing to build a state stockpile of anti-viral drugs. Like other medications, the anti-viral drugs do have a limited shelf life, but they are not just pandemic flu drugs. Tamiflu, the best known of the anti-virals, is routinely prescribed for the annual flu as well. If for some reason, the pandemic does not materialize in 3-4 years, the state can start using those medicines for the annual flu in the state health programs. The stockpile represents and insurance policy and provides medicines for the annual flu during an inter-pandemic period.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt has made the point repeatedly that the federal government cannot come to the rescue of the states during a pandemic. It does not have the resources to do so. "I need to say with a clear and unwavering voice," he said on his fifty-state tour last year, "that any community that fails to prepare, with the expectation that somehow the federal government will have the resources to ride in and save the day, will be sorely disappointed."

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Contact Marilyn Bardsley at marilyn.bardsley@turner.com

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