Its something we have hard about for close to a year now.
Nearly every news show has dedicated at least a large segment to it and
countless magazines have reported on it. Sadly its something our President has
not addressed until recently. This mysterious problem is Avian Flu, or Bird Flu.

The first time President Bush acknowledged this deadly
virus was at the United Nations summit last month. While addressing the assembly
he brought up the need for the worlds health organizations to come together to
fight this monster disease. Unfortunately it was too little to late.

This week, President Bush addressed the disease to
reporters. He also met with the leaders of America’s drug companies to figure
out what we can do to be better prepared. After Katrina and the Iraq fiasco, we
can safely say preparation is not a key component in this administration.

There are drugs out there to help fight this disease. The
problem is none are made in the United States. They are made mostly in France,
and the rest of the world has beaten us out on ordering them. This puts our
orders at the bottom of the list. We will not receive these life saving drugs
until the end of next year now.

Bird Flu has already claimed 100 lives in Asia and is
feared to make the deadly mutation to go from human to human anytime now. Some
world health officials have estimated death tolls as high as 150 million if it
does this mutation.

The President did say he wants to be able to use the
military to respond to this potential outbreak. Exactly what use they will
provide is still unknown but some speculation has rested on them being used for
quarantine purposes. What ever use he decides upon will have to be met with
strict oversight.

With flu season upon us, citizens must act vigilant to any
signs of illness. If this disease does reach our shores it will most likely
overshadow the great flu pandemic of 1918, which claimed between 20 and 40
million lives. In today’s world, a virus like this has the potential to spread
at an enormous speed. Considering the advances in travel, an outbreak in China
could hit here within days.

This is truly something to be alarmed about. It sure would
have been nice if our leader would have started worrying months ago. His
ignorance to the warnings could very well cost millions of Americans their
lives.