Originally published July 20 2005
Infectious disease risk could lead to high death toll in underdeveloped world
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The avian flu strain, which has killed 50 people and 100 million animals -- mainly chickens -- in Asia, is evolving dangerously and could eventually lead to a death toll of hundreds of millions in the underdeveloped world, according to an article called "The Next Pandemic" in the journal Foreign Affairs. Some politicians in Washington are pushing for bills that would give incentives to biotech companies to develop vaccines to combat bioterrorism and infectious disease.
The journal refers to the avian flu strain, H5N1, which has the potential to be "far more dangerous' than the Spanish flu that killed 50 million people worldwide in 1918 and 1919, including 675,000 in the United States.
The combined threat of infectious disease the avian flu is just one of several menaces plus bioterrorism presents a quandary for U.S. politicians.
In a remarkable June 1 speech at Harvard University, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-TN a physician and presidential candidate declared infectious diseases and bioterrorism "the single greatest threat to our safety and security today' and said fighting them will be the overriding purpose of his political future.
At the same time, Frist is being criticized for not moving aggressively enough to get new BioShield legislation passed, notably by Sen.
Frist and Lieberman are backing rival bills that offer tax, liability and other incentives to now-reluctant biotech companies to begin producing vaccines, diagnostics and therapies and to guarantee a market if they produce them.
Lieberman contends that his bill is more comprehensive, and his aides question whether Frist is pushing various Senate committees hard enough to get legislation enacted this year.
"You have a fascinating conflation of presidential politics and serious substance at work here,' said Chuck Ludlam, who's retiring this week as a top Lieberman aide and former biotechnology lobbyist to join the Peace Corps.
unleashing the private sector and unprecedented collaboration between government, industry and academia.'
He also proposed "creation of secure stores of treatments and vaccines and vast networks of distribution.
Frist declared that, "for some years, this should be the chief work of the nation, for the good reason that failing to make it so could risk the life of the nation and other nations the world over.'
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