Scientists Supportive of Bush Bird Flu Plan

Scientists are generally praising President George W. Bush's release this week of a plan to spend $7.1 billion to help prepare the nation for an influenza pandemic that potentially could kill 2 million Americans. A new report released today provides further details about the possible pandemic and who would be protected first.

Speaking at the National Institutes of Health yesterday, Bush noted growing concerns that the H5N1 avian flu now spreading west from Asia could acquire the ability to be transmitted from human to human (ScienceNOW, 13 October). "If we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare," he said. He is asking Congress for $251 million to help other countries detect and respond to outbreaks and $644 million to help U.S. national, state, and local officials get ready. Another $2.5 billion would go for stockpiling antiviral drugs and making enough of a vaccine based on the current H5N1 strain for 20 million people. (The vaccine could offer some protection against an H5N1 pandemic strain.) In addition, Bush wants Congress to pass legislation to shield vaccine companies from lawsuits. Some Democrats oppose that step, but "you will never get companies to make hundreds of millions of doses" of vaccine without it, says immunologist Paul Offit of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Bush also wants to spend $2.8 billion on a "crash program" to speed up cell-based vaccine technology so that if a pandemic strikes, the U.S. could manufacture a new vaccine matching the pandemic strain for all Americans within 6 months. Experts praise this effort to shore up the country's weak vaccine infrastructure, but note that the "surge capacity" to meet this goal won't come online until 2010. David Fedson, a retired medical director of Aventis-Pasteur, argues that to stretch capacity now, the U.S. should be testing very low doses of H5N1 vaccine with an additive called an adjuvant that boosts the body's immune response.

Today, the Department of Health and Human Services released more details in a 396-page pandemic preparedness plan that says up to 1.9 million Americans could die in a severe pandemic. The report describes who should get antivirals and vaccines first, such as public health workers, the elderly, and government leaders. "This is what states are waiting for" to finish their flu plans, says epidemiologist Arnold Monto of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, who served on an advisory group that helped make the list.

Bush's plan, which also includes a new web site for the public (www.pandemicflu.gov), comes a week after the Senate approved nearly $8 billion in emergency funds for pandemic flu preparedness. Congress is now holding a flurry of hearings on pandemic flu, and it is expected to meld its wishes with the president's request as it finalizes 2006 spending bills.


--JOCELYN KAISER

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2005/1102/3

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幫翻譯～～

科學家支援布希鳥流感計劃

科學家一般稱讚喬治・W. 布希總統的發行計劃的這個星期花費$7.1 十億幫助國家為能潛在地殺害2 百萬美國人的流行性感冒pandemic 做準備。一個新報告今天公布提供關於可能pandemic 的進一步細節並且誰首先會被保護。 昨天講話在健康全國學院, 布希注意了增長的關心, H5N1 鳥流感現在傳播西部從亞洲能獲取能力被傳送從人與人(ScienceNOW, 10月13 日) 。
"如果我們等pandemic 出現, 它太晚以至於不能準備," 他說。他要求國會$251 百萬幫助其它國家查出並且反應到爆發和$644 百萬幫助美國國民、狀態, 和地方官員準備好。另外$2.5 十億會去為儲備抗病毒藥物和做足夠疫苗根據當前的H5N1 張力為20 百萬人民。(疫苗能提供一些保護反對H5N1 pandemic 張力。) 另外, 布希要國會通過立法對盾疫苗公司從訴訟。
一些民主人士反對那步, 但"您從未將使公司做成千上萬的藥量" 疫苗沒有它, 說免疫學者保□・Offit 賓夕法尼亞大學, 費城。 布希並且想要在"崩潰節目上" 花費$2.8 十億加速cell-based 疫苗技術以便如果pandemic 觸擊, 美國能製造新疫苗匹配pandemic 張力為所有美國人在6 個月內。專家稱讚這努力支撐國家的微弱的疫苗基礎設施, 但注意到, "浪湧容量" 實現這個目標在網上不會來在2010 年內。
大衛Fedson, Aventis-Pasteur 的一位退休醫療主任, 爭論那現在舒展容量, 美國應該測試非常H5N1 疫苗低藥量與添加劑稱促進身體的免疫反應的輔藥。 今天, 健康和人的服務的部門發布了更多細節在認為的396 頁pandemic 準備計劃1.9 百萬美國人能死在一嚴厲pandemic 。報告描述誰應該首先得到antivirals 和疫苗, 譬如公共衛生工作者, 年長的人, 並且政府領導。
"這是什麼陳述等" 完成他們的流感計劃, 說流行病學家阿諾德・Monto 密執安大學, 安阿伯, 服務在一個情況通知的小組幫助做名單。 布希的計劃, 並且包括一個新網站為公眾(www.pandemicflu.gov), 來一個星期在參議院以後批准了幾乎$8 十億在應急基金為pandemic 流感準備。國會現在舉行聽力慌張在pandemic 流感, 並且它被預計合併它的願望以總統的請求當它完成2006 年花費的票據。 -- jocelyn 皇帝

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