Bush Plans for Flu Pandemic Flawed, GAO Says

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/09/28/bush-plans-for-flu-pandemic-flawed-gao-says/

by James Parks, Sep 28, 2007

With influenza season approaching, the Bush administration still has not developed complete and effective measures to combat the threat of a deadly flu pandemic.

Now comes an analysis by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which shows the federal government’s plans are inadequate and key questions about leadership and responsibility for dealing with a pandemic remain unanswered.

The 52-page report says federal plans do not adequately address leadership roles and responsibilities. For example, the plans don’t outline how the secretaries of the departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Homeland Security (DHS) would share leadership in a pandemic. Click here to download a copy of the report.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, one of the lawmakers who requested the report, told the Associated Press:

It is vital to resolve questions of turf, responsibility, and performance in advance, rather than in the heat of an actual pandemic.

The GAO report also shows that the pandemic plans fail to meet at least five of six desirable characteristics that the agency uses to gauge the effectiveness of various federal strategies. For example, the plan lacks ways to monitor and report progress and does not project how much it would cost to fight a pandemic.

The AFL-CIO and first responders long have pointed out that the Bush administration plans put the lives of health care workers and others in danger and doesn’t allow them to be adequately protected while they’re doing their jobs to protect the public. Several times during the past year, we’ve noted the government’s incomplete and ineffective measures. (Click here, here, here, here and here.)

FULL story at link.

[Spinzonner]

1. Combines the administration approach

to risk analysis like Global Warming and Disaster Planning like Katrina

[mike_c]

2. Bush. Plans. Flawed. Who could have anticipated those words all appearing...

...in the same sentence? :rofl: