Political or Bird Flu Pandemic?
(10/5/2005)
Political or Bird Flu Pandemic? At his recent news conference, President Bush said that after researching the problem, including reading John M. Barry’s book The Great Influenza, he is worried about a worldwide pandemic of Avian Flu. He is preparing to ask congress for upwards of $10 billion to prepare for this crisis. CNBC’s SquawkBox invited Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, who is directing the administration's preparedness effort, and author John Barry to discuss this impending disaster. Here’s what I think and what I told them this morning.
I have some experience here--I was in China last week, I also have an investment in a duck farm in Thailand where we already have had the bird flu, and I have done my homework (see, for example, the books about plagues and the spread of disease on my recommended reading list on the Rutledge Capital website: Yellow Fever, Black Goddess: The Coevolution of People and Plagues; Plagues and Peoples; Plague, Pox & Pestilence: Disease in History, Rats, Lice and History; The Impact of Plague in Tudor and Stuart England).
I think the spread of disease and plagues is a fascinating subject, and I urge everyone to read John’s book. However, I think what we have here is a political virus. We are dealing with a virus that started with Katrina and went through Rita, Rove, Frist, DeLay and Bennett. This is not news today--this problem was here yesterday and the day before. I think we should be ashamed of ourselves for getting people spooked about pandemics when we are in the middle of a PR crisis in the White House.
I also think it’s highly possible that I won’t be invited to the White House for lunch anytime soon.