One Flu Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

University Health Services, along with health centers across the world, may have more to worry about than Kleenex shortages soon—much, much more.

According to a leaked copy of a recent federal report, a major Asian outbreak of human flu could reach the U.S. in a matter of weeks, and, according to Forbes.com, “could lead to the deaths of 1.9 million Americans and the hospitalization of 8.5 million more people with costs exceeding $450 billion.” Such a scenario now seems vastly more likely with the discovery, last week, that the avian flu virus can mutate independently to become a lethal strain to humans.

But, not to worry: President Bush is already coming to the rescue!

Last Tuesday, Bush revealed his latest plot to protect America by calling on Congress to “change the law” to allow him to utilize the U.S. military to carry out domestic operations during peacetime, such as “forced quarantines.”

Of course, it is not surprising that this administration should respond to a health problem with the military. The military has been its “answer” of choice to not only international law (“UN diplomacy is too slow!”), but to unemployment (“Enlist!”), education (“Enlist and get college paid for!”), and a host of other national problems.

However, preemptively increasing the President’s power with a further militarization of American society is the absolutely worst way to respond to the flu threat. The U.S. military is an unwieldy force that possesses combat—not medical—expertise. Forced quarantines could only be a desperate last resort after a massive collapse of health infrastructure. Instead of improving communication between local, state, and federal emergency services, increased military power would amplify mistakes made at the top of the chain of command.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, examples of the expanded scope of military power in civilian life have been inauspicious. Americans have become too acclimated to the presence of heavily armed military personnel on their public transportation systems and in public spaces. Military recruiters and their bigoted policies are being forced back upon university campuses with threats of cutting all federal aid to these institutions—money which, by the way, universities use in epidemiological research.

True, the Senate has approved $3.9 billion in spending to increase “preparedness” for a flu outbreak, but this is about half the amount spent on the conflict in Iraq in a single month. Last Friday, the White House invited vaccine makers to discuss increased production of flu vaccines, such as Tamiflu—a medicine whose “effectiveness in humans is unknown.” Worse, Secretary of Health and Human Services Micheal O. Leavitt has stated that “no one in the world is ready,” making these steps seem pathetically small, if nothing more than empty political gestures.

What we need now is not power-grabbing, but leadership. Funding must be increased sharply to biomedical research institutions to produce effective vaccines. The federal government must ensure that local, state, and national emergency services can communicate and coordinate successfully during a crippling flu outbreak. The threat of flu demands attention, even at the cost of reversing tax cuts and reducing spending in Iraq.

Still-fresh images of New Orleans annihilated poignantly remind us of the massive disruption and agony that ensues when government “preparedness” fails during natural disasters of regional proportions. I shudder to consider a failure of national and global proportions.

Paul G. Nauert ’09, a Crimson editorial comper, lives in Grays Hall.