I have not picked who I will vote for…I do not vote “party” simply my conscience. Pandemic Influenza is a “hot button” issue with me. Especially now with clusters of human to human influenza breaking out daily. The Democrats do have a much better record in regards to speaking about pandemic influenza.
Notice the dates of these statements. Why nothing more recent since recent activity is certainly much more disconcerting. IF THEY KNOW WHY AREN’T THEY SPEAKING????
One blogger speculates that candidates do not want to lose the Catholic vote. A pandemic will most likely halt church services and corporate “communion”—-no one wants to touch that political hot potato.
I could not find a formal statement or any comments issued by John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani, John Edwards, and many other candidates. Not that they haven’t made any but searching has not turned up any readily available ones. If anyone finds a formal statement please post them here.
I am very curious to know where the candidates stand on this VERY MAJOR and TIMELY issue. Considering that martial law is one of the strategies, I want to know who will hold my life in their hands….I want to know their plan. Assuming there will even be an election in November of 2008. A pandemic could seriously jeopardize an election….just a heads up.
Read about each individual candidate…..
The Candidates
The Democrats
Joe Biden
America is Not Ready to Respond to a National Health Emergency
Published: 05/10/2006
The Hill Newspaper
By Joseph BidenAs we wait for the fast-moving bird flu that has struck Asia, Africa, and Europe to find its way to America, the question is: Are we prepared to respond? Or will this outbreak once again show that the Bush administration does not have a comprehensive plan to handle national emergencies, as happened with Hurricane Katrina?
In my view, we’re about one-third prepared.
Congress approved $3.8 billion for pandemic flu preparations, and the administration is now building up stockpiles of anti-viral agents that could lessen the flu’s impact. The administration also is procuring vaccines that might prevent the flu and is increasing the nation’s capacity to produce targeted vaccines when the flu begins to be transmitted between humans.
All of that is to the good. But I firmly believe that two-thirds of what needs to be done still has been left undone.
First, our international response has been inadequate. The best way to prevent a human pandemic flu in the United States is to stop it while it is still overseas.
Four years ago, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and I introduced the Global Pathogen Surveillance Act, to provide more training and equipment to developing countries to build up their ability to detect, identify and report on infectious disease outbreaks. The Senate passed the bill in 2002 and again last year, but it still sits in the House of Representatives.
The administration should be pushing the House to move. Every day it sits, medical training and equipment is not flowing to countries that desperately need it to contain the flu before it gets to America.
We’re only hurting ourselves with our continued inaction. If avian flu as a human-to-human disease is detected early enough, anti-viral medicines may be enough to contain the outbreak before it spreads in crowded cities of Asia and Africa. All it takes is a few sick people to hop on airplanes and tens of thousands of people can catch the disease around the world in a matter of weeks.
Also, scientists cannot confidently produce a vaccine until they isolate the strain of the flu that passes from birds to humans. Every day garnered through earlier detection would mean an extra day for vaccine production, in what could be a life-and-death race to protect Americans.
Second, first responders to a pandemic flu outbreak in this country will be state and local health departments, which desperately need more federal support. This should be a national priority, not just an unfunded local mandate.
Beefing up these departments so pandemic flu can be detected early and contained within the community where it first appears would benefit all states, as the flu knows no boundaries.
In this regard, we also need to strengthen our capacity to ramp up care for the millions of citizens who would need medical assistance, including hospitalization, during a flu pandemic.
Third, someone needs to be in charge of the response. In Katrina we learned what happens when the chain of command is not clearly established.
Responding to a pandemic will require coordination among multiple federal agencies and state and local governments. Coordination of this magnitude is not possible unless a single point person, who reports directly to the president, is in charge.
Fourth, avian flu poses a huge economic threat to the poultry industry in Delaware, throughout the country and around the world. The importance of international and domestic veterinary response cannot be understated, and funding for these activities also needs to be strengthened. For example, compensating farmers from developing countries fairly if they report sick poultry is a key link in blocking the spread of avian flu, yet money for this purpose has been very slow in coming.
If avian flu becomes a massive human disease, we need to be more than one-third prepared. We need to be fully ready.
The administration’s recently released implementation plan for the national pandemic flu strategy has brought focus to the issue, but it still leaves many key questions unresolved. None of us wants to be sick with this awful disease, wondering: Why didn’t the government realize it had to do more?
Biden is the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee and a member of the Judiciary Committee.
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Hillary Clinton
Statement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on Release of Pandemic Influenza: Warning, Children at Risk
By newsdesk - Posted on October 18th, 2007
October 17, 2007 — “I am pleased to see that Trust for America’s Health and the American Academy of Pediatrics have released this report highlighting the needs of pediatric populations during a pandemic influenza epidemic. As our public health system works to prepare for both a potential pandemic and seasonal influenza, we must ensure that our efforts to protect our health extend to children as well.
Our government recognizes the importance of vaccinating children against seasonal flu, but more must be done. This report highlights the ways in which our experiences with seasonal flu vaccination can impact our efforts to vaccinate children during a pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends vaccination for all children from six months to four years of age, children who have chronic diseases like asthma, and school-aged children who wish to reduce the risk of becoming ill with influenza. However, influenza vaccination rates among these populations is low, with less than one out of five children receiving the recommended vaccinations. Clearly, we must do more to improve awareness of the importance of flu vaccination among pediatric populations during our annual flu season.
This report also highlights some of the challenges in pandemic preparation. Much of our preparation has been focused on stockpiling antiviral medications and facemasks. In the past few years, antiviral medications have been approved for use in some, but not all, pediatric subgroups. However, we have not made such advances with masks and respirators, many of which are not designed to fit the smaller faces of children. We must ensure that pediatric formulations of medications and devices are widely available during a pandemic.
I will soon be reintroducing legislation with Senator Roberts – the Influenza Vaccine Security Act – that will address some of the issues in the report, in addition to helping our overall national response to seasonal influenza. This bill will improve the ability of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide outreach to priority populations, such as young children, and improve vaccination rates among those most at risk of complications from influenza. It will also require the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that pediatric products are adequately represented in the Strategic National Stockpile, and encourage the Secretary to work with the private sector to develop treatments and devices to help protect children during a flu pandemic. With these provisions, we will be taking steps to prevent transmission of both seasonal and pandemic influenza among the tens of millions of children in our country.
I look forward to working with my colleagues in Congress to raise awareness of the public health needs in both seasonal and pandemic influenza for children, families, and all Americans.”
Source: Senator Hillary Clinton
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Chris Dodd
The office of Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., issued the following press release:
Sens. Chris Dodd and Joe Lieberman joined 30 other Senate Democrats in calling on the White House to make pandemic flu preparedness a top priority in advance of the release next Monday of his budget request for 2007. Last year, only half of the pandemic flu preparedness funding determined necessary by Senate Democrats and the President was passed by the Republican Senate and then approved by the President. In a letter to President Bush, the Senators urged him to adequately fund the avian flu preparedness plan they outlined last fall to protect Americans from such a dangerous disease.
The full text of the letter follows below:
February 3, 2006
President George W. Bush The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:We are deeply concerned that our nation remains unprepared for the serious and growing threat of an influenza pandemic. Last year, the Republican-controlled Congress passed and you approved $3.8 billion to help protect our nation from a pandemic - less than half the $8 billion passed by the Senate and $3.3 billion less than you determined was necessary for this purpose. As you prepare your fiscal year (FY) 2007 budget request for Congress, we hope your budget will make pandemic flu preparedness a top priority and you will work with us to see that Congress provides the resources needed to address this looming crisis.
As you know, the H5N1 strain of avian influenza has spread to 15 countries where it has killed 83 of the 152 individuals it has infected. Members of your administration have warned that this virus could mutate to a new strain that will allow for sustained human-to-human transmission and cause the next pandemic. World Health Organization officials have cautioned that with every new human infection of the H5N1 virus, the possibility increases that it could mutate into a form that can be easily transmitted between humans.
The human and economic impact of an influenza pandemic on our nation would be devastating. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, a severe flu pandemic could infect 90 million residents and kill almost two million. A Congressional Budget Office report found that under this scenario, thirty percent of the work force would become ill and those who survived would miss three weeks of work. This lost productivity and decrease in consumer spending could cause a $675 billion reduction in the U.S. gross domestic product and move the nation into a recession.
Our nation remains dangerously unprepared to address this looming threat. We are not dedicating enough resources to the global surveillance and preparedness activities that will allow us to prevent, detect, or contain an outbreak of avian flu. If we are unable to contain a pandemic overseas, our strongest defense at home will be an effective vaccine. However, our domestic vaccine manufacturing capacity is so inadequate it could take nearly a year to produce and distribute a vaccine. Effective drugs that can slow the spread of a pandemic until a vaccine is developed are available for less than two percent of our population. Finally, all of these problems are compounded by the fact that our public health infrastructure does not have the capacity to handle a pandemic and the medical community, business and general public remain unprepared for a pandemic. If we do not address the funding shortfall for pandemic preparedness, there will be inadequate resources to fund important protections - including global surveillance and containment, vaccine manufacturing capacity, provider and hospital surge capacity, stockpiling of antivirals and other medications, and preparedness of state and local health departments.
All of these are reasons why the growing threat of a pandemic requires immediate action, why we voted last year to provide $8 billion in emergency funding for pandemic preparedness, and why we believe significant additional resources are needed this year.
In addition, we are concerned about a provision in the FY 2006 Department of Defense Appropriations bill [P.L 109-148] that gives sweeping liability protections for the pharmaceutical industry, even for the consequences of reckless wrongdoing, without funding a compensation program for individuals who are injured as a result of new vaccines or medications. While we support reasonable protection for vaccine makers whose products may cause unforeseen or unpreventable harm, these protections must be narrowly tailored and must be accompanied with protections and compensation for injured patients. As we learned from the failed smallpox vaccination effort, the government cannot expect first responders or members of the public to be vaccinated if they do not have assurances that those injured as a result of vaccines or other medications will be compensated for those injuries. We ask that you reconsider this ill-conceived, hastily crafted liability provision immediately and request funding for a real compensation program.
We hope that you will agree that the serious and growing threat of an influenza pandemic requires swift action and should be made a top priority in your budget. The government’s lack of preparation for this threat is unacceptable. We ask for you to demonstrate your leadership on this issue by requesting the funding needed to address this crisis in your FY 2007 budget request.
Sincerely,
Harry Reid Senate Democratic Leader
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John Edwards
Have not found a clear statement yet regarding pandemic influenza. Still searching….
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Mike Gravel
Have not found a clear statement yet regarding pandemic influenza. Still searching….
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Dennis Kucinich
Have not found a clear statement yet regarding pandemic influenza. Still searching….
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Barak Obama
Statement of U.S. Senator Barack Obama on the Avian Flu
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Statement of U.S. Senator Barack Obama on the Avian Flu
Remarks as prepared for delivery on the U.S. Senate floor
Washington, DC
October 18, 2005Mr. President,
We are continuing to witness the relentless spread of avian flu, carried slowly but predictably by wild, migratory birds from countries in Southeast Asia to Western China, to Mongolia, and then over the Ural Mountains into Russia and Ukraine. From there, avian flu has spread over the past week to Romania and Turkey, and we have just learned, possibly into Greece.
Dr. Joseph Domenech, chief of the Animal Health Service at the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, has been quoted as saying that “…we are not surprised.”
Mr. President, at this point, no one should be surprised. The experts have told us repeatedly that a flu pandemic is inevitable, although the timing is unpredictable. In other words, the question is not if, but when. This spread of avian flu is our warning signal, and we need to heed this call to action.
If we’re lucky, we’ll have at least a year, or perhaps several years, to prepare for a flu pandemic. But we might not be so lucky. And regardless of whether it is this particular strain of avian flu, H5N1, or another deadly strain, the time to act is long overdue if we want to prevent unprecedented human suffering, death, and economic devastation.
International health experts say that two of the three conditions for an avian flu pandemic in Southeast Asia already exist. First, a new strain of the virus has emerged to which humans have little or no immunity. Second, this strain has shown that it can jump between species.
The last condition–the ability for the virus to travel efficiently from human to human–has not been met, and it is the only thing preventing a full blown pandemic. Once this virus mutates and can be transmitted from human to human, we will not be able to contain this disease. Because of the wonders of modern travel, a person could board a plane in Bangkok, Athens, or Bucharest and land in Chicago less than a day later, unknowingly carrying the virus. Indeed, we learned this lesson from SARS, which moved quickly from Asia to Canada, where it led to many deaths.
As my colleagues know, one of my top priorities since arriving in the Senate has been increasing awareness about the avian flu. In April of this year, I introduced the AVIAN Act, which is a comprehensive bill to increase our preparedness for an avian flu pandemic. This bill was incorporated into a larger bill, the Pandemic Preparedness and Response Act, that Senator Reid and I introduced two weeks ago. We need to move this bill as quickly as possible.
We also need to provide more funding to purchase vaccines and antivirals and improve our ability to spot and isolate a pandemic as soon as it begins. In the spring and summer, I worked to secure $35 million in funding to fight the avian flu. Today, some of this money is already helping the World Health Organization to step up its international surveillance and response efforts.
But clearly much more money is needed. Last month, I joined Senator Harkin and others in offering an amendment to the DOD appropriations bill to provide almost $4 billion to fight the avian flu. I am pleased that Senator Stevens cosponsored the amendment and it was accepted into the appropriations bill. I hope that the House will agree to this funding in conference.
Although we have begun to step up to the plate in the Senate, it is unfortunate that none of the avian flu bills that have been introduced have passed into law. Frankly, there’s been a lot of talk, but not enough action. And this isn’t just true of the Congress.
One year after publishing the draft pandemic flu plan, the Administration has still not released the final HHS Pandemic Flu Preparedness Plan. Half of states haven’t published plans either, and we know that many of these states will need substantial help.
This lack of planning is compounded by the fact that we still don’t have a FDA approved vaccine against avian flu, and the one drug that many countries are relying on–Tamiflu–may be less effective than experts had thought. The manufacturer is also struggling to meet the demand, and it could take up to 2 years for it to make enough for the U.S. stockpile, presuming this Administration finally puts in an order for the drug.
I would ask my colleagues how many hearings and briefings that they have sat through where witnesses and experts have urged the United States government to be better prepared for these types of crises.
The failure to prepare for emergencies can have devastating consequences. We learned that lesson the hard way after Hurricane Katrina. This nation must not be caught off-guard when faced with the prospect of an avian flu pandemic. The consequences are too high.
The flyways for migratory birds are well-established. We know that avian flu will likely hit the United States in a matter of time. With the regular flu season coming up shortly, conditions will be favorable for reassortment of the avian flu virus with the annual flu virus. Such reassortment could lead to a mutated virus that could be transmitted efficiently between humans, which is the last condition needed for pandemic flu.
The question is will we be ready when that happens? Let’s make sure that answer is yes. I urge my colleagues in the Senate and the House to push this Administration to take the action needed to prevent a catastrophe that we have not seen during our lifetimes.
Thank you. I yield the floor.
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Bill Richardson
Have not found a clear statement yet regarding pandemic influenza. Still searching….
The Governor’s office did release this document signed by Dr. Veronica Garcia -Secretary of Education and Michelle Grisham - Secretary of Health.
So why is Bill so silent?
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The Republicans
Rudy Giuliani
Have not found a clear statement yet regarding pandemic influenza. Still searching….
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Mike Huckabee
This has me a tad concerned…would a influenza pandemic be considered an “act of God” that needs no mitigation?
from Pensito Review - In March 1997, after a tornado ripped through Arkadelphia killing six people and destroying over 70 businesses downtown, Gov. Huckabee held up disaster assistance to the town of 10,000 people for weeks because he objected to an insurance industry term of art that labeled the destruction an “act of God.”
Senate Bill 491 was so straightforward it ran to only two pages. It sought to protect tornado victims from insurance companies that might cancel policies after they filed claims. “No insurance policy or contract covering damages to property shall be canceled nor the renewal thereof denied solely as a result of claims arising from acts of God,” it read.
“Acts of God” had a long history in English maritime law and was standard language in many insurance policies…
According to state legislative records, Huckabee first registered his objection to the Senate bill five days after the tornado. But his staff did not relay his concerns, he later wrote.
“While I realize that to some this is a minor issue, it is a matter of deep conscience with me to attribute in law a destructive and deadly force as being an ‘act of God,’ ” he eventually wrote to the bill’s sponsors, [state Rep. Dennis R.] Young and Sen. Wayne Dowd. While acknowledging that “acts of God” was the “appropriate” legal term, he suggested the legislature substitute “natural disaster.”
….I am still looking….
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Duncan Hunter
Have not found a clear statement yet regarding pandemic influenza. Still searching….
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John McCain
One notable quote that I could find from October 2005…..
Government plans call for amassing 20 million vaccine doses and the same number of anti-virals, including Roche’s Tamiflu, but so far, U.S. stockpiles total only about 2.3 million doses of Tamiflu, which would protect less than 1 percent of the population.
The Bush administration’s flu strategy also calls for states and local governments to formulate detailed procedures for use if H5N1 becomes able to transfer from human to human. Some states already have such plans, Leavitt told reporters Thursday, but he added, “I think it is safe to generally characterize (the plans) as not adequate.”
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he supported new spending on flu preparedness, but added he was frustrated because supporters had not detailed how they planned to pay for it.
McCain, a frequent administration critic, also seemed skeptical about the White House’s long-awaited plan. Asked about the pending initiative, McCain referred to Richard Nixon’s claims about a strategy to defeat the Viet Cong during the 1968 presidential campaign.
“We had a secret plan to win the Vietnam war, too. Remember?” McCain said.
…I am still looking…
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Ron Paul
Have not found a clear statement yet regarding pandemic influenza. Still searching….
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Mitt Romney
Boston Herald October 14, 2005
Mitt: Stock up on food, water in case of a flu emergencyBy Jessica Heslam
Gov. Mitt Romney is warning Bay Staters to buy extra groceries for use in an emergency and is considering having health officials stockpile larger amounts of medications in anticipation of a possible worldwide flu outbreak.
“We expect that in the next 10 years we will have a pandemic but we don’t know when and we can’t be 100 percent certain,” Romney said yesterday. “We are taking action to be prepared.”
Romney has asked state public health officials to have “plans in place” to prepare for a pandemic influenza similar to the 1918 outbreak that killed a half-million Americans. A major portion of that planning is done, said Romney, who met with public health and safety officials yesterday.
Romney has given the state Department of Public Health 30 days to look into whether the National Guard and public college dorms could house the sick should there be an outbreak. Currently, Massachusetts has 8,000 “surge capacity beds” - just enough to cover a potential surge, the governor said.
Over the next several months, Romney will encourage people to buy an extra day’s worth of food during their weekly grocery store trip to prepare for a possible flu pandemic or other emergency. Romney said the “food pipeline” could be temporarily interrupted should an outbreak occur.
While acknowledging that most people can’t buy a month’s worth of food at once, the governor said if people bought extra food each week they would have eight or nine days’ worth of food storage.
“It’s just good emergency planning,” Romney said. “This will serve well in the event of a pandemic or natural disaster or any other kinds of emergency.”
The H5NI bird strain has so far killed 60 people in Asia. Experts fear the virus could mutate into a human strain.
Several security experts said stockpiling food wasn’t a bad idea, while one doctor called it “over the top.”
“I plan to do it,” said John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org.. “My gut is telling me that his suggestion of eight days doesn’t sound like enough.”
Dr. Rick Blum, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, said stockpiling food “strikes me as a little bit over the top.”
Brandeis Professor Rovert Art said it’s “probably not a bad idea” to have some bottled water and canned food in the house. Art said government officials have to walk a fine line. If they don’t warn people and disaster strikes, they’re blamed. If they warn people and nothing happens, they’re labeled as alarmists.
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Fred Thompson
Have not found a clear statement yet regarding pandemic influenza. Still searching….
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As I find clear statements I will update this post…..
Filed under: Board of Health, Candidates, Caucus, Influenza, Iowa, President, pandemic, politics | Tagged: Presidential candidates, pandemic influenza
