Take Thousands of Bureaucrats and Call me in the Morning

The Avian Flu is the latest cause to inspire Washington to new heights of fiscal foolishness. Using the theory made famous by PT Barnum that ‘a sucker is born every minute’, Washington’s latest scam is to make spending more palatable by wrapping it inside the issue of public safety. The idea is to justify irrational spending with terrorism, pandemic diseases, or a combination of both. If the taxpayers think they will be safer, they will accept any spending. Under the guise of terrorism protection, we welcomed thousands of new bureaucrats and consultants to provide oversight to our existing agencies. The only true test of the efficacy of this policy was the Katrina Hurricane relief effort as the Department of Homeland Security had jurisdiction. Six months after the rescue, people are still homeless, large areas are still an unlivable, and the relief effort itself is widely considered a disaster. Now Washington is asking us to do the same with the Public Health. Senators Joseph Lieberman and Orin Hatch did exactly that when they proposed their Bio-Shield II legislation. The threat of a large-scale epidemic, also known as a pandemic, is a good excuse to hire thousands of new bureaucrats and payback their political donors. At first glance, the Bio-Shield II legislation sounds logical. In it, the senators propose a new government agency to fund the creation of vaccines in cooperation with the private sector. They also propose a shield from lawsuits for the companies creating the vaccines - so that they could put a best effort into creating vaccines without threat of lawsuits.

Upon closer examination, since the National Institute of Health (NIH) already funds private research directed towards the creation of vaccines - why do we need another agency to do the same thing? For example, on March 9th, the Iomai Corporation received an award from NIH for Pandemic Flu Vaccine Research. In fact, other agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also funds vaccine research and perform functions to help the private sector produce vaccines. Companies are lining up to accept government help to produce vaccines. Since vaccines have a limited shelf life – many only remain viable for about one year – these vaccines would have to be produced and disposed of regularly, which would only increase a company’s profits. This merry-go-round of revenue is made more attractive when one realizes the vaccines will most likely never be used – as was the case with the Smallpox vaccine. As for the legal shield, any company would love to have the same protection. However, without the protection from lawsuits, companies are still accepting government assistance to develop vaccines. Is this a poorly disguised return on investment to the drug industry by two of the senators? The drug industry has been the leading donors to both senators’ campaigns for years. This year Joe Lieberman received 329,229 from the Healthcare industry while Orin Hatch received $168,900 (from January to March when this article was researched). Creating a new government agency to fund and promote vaccine research and development would require thousands of bureaucrats and supporting consultants. These individuals would be would owe their jobs to Lieberman and Hatch. It is a great way to create a constituency especially if you are planning on running for president. Both Senators are rumored to be running for President in 2008. Even their fellow Senators could not let Bio-Shield II pass through the Senate, other bills just as dangerous have passed.

These bills siphon money that could be spent on existing public health programs for programs that add little to the public health efforts. Syndromatic Surveillance is one of the catch phrases, which have been soaking up your tax dollars. The idea is computers will scan medical records to identify symptoms, which may be caused by a bio-terrorism. If this seems like a great idea, it is. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the U.S. government has been doing this since 1878. The CDC and the Public Health Service (PHS) has been performing this task for decades. As part of the Bio-Terrorism spending carnival, duplicate projects have been set up at Harvard University, the Department of Homeland Security, and other organizations for over $400 million dollars. These are not isolated incidents. So far 59 Bills from the 109th Congress addressed the Avian Flu while 10 address Anthrax. In October of 2001, two letters were sent through the Brentwood Postal Facility to Washington, D.C. According to the CDC, over 2000 individuals were potentially exposed to Anthrax. Twenty-two got sick. Eleven contracted Cutaneous Anthrax which is seldom life threatening. Five died. The Anthrax attacks were ineffective in what should have been an optimum site for such an attack. The Brentwood facility was a closed facility occupied by a large number of individuals who remained in contact with the Anthrax spores for upwards to several days. The death rate was one quarter of one percent. Despite this, thousands of U.S. Service men and women were vaccinated against Anthrax and according to Investors.com the U.S. government spent over 1.2 billion was spent on Anthrax VaccinesHow serious is the threat of Avian Flu? Since 1997, the World Health Organization has tracked over 100 cases of Avian Flu (Avian Influenza A Flu) in humans. Four different anti-viral drugs are recommended by the Food and Drug Administration to treat the Avian Flu. However, the strains may become resistance to these drugs. Is an outbreak of Avian Flu pending? Who knows? The reason we were so startled by SARS in 2003 was that we were preparing for a bio-terrorist attack using Smallpox back, which never materialized.