Editorial: Urgent need for vaccine

Sunday, May 7, 2006 | 9:08 a.m.

Stockpiling enough vaccine to slow or stop a bird flu pandemic in the United States is a race against time. So far no birds have been found to be infected in this country, and the virus killing birds in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa has not mutated into a form that could cause a pandemic among people.

But no one knows when that could all change.

On Thursday, the day after the Bush administration released an updated national plan to deal with bird flu if it becomes an emergency here, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt acknowledged that the U.S. does not have the capacity now to produce enough vaccine.

Leavitt also announced that the government was awarding $1 billion to five drug manufacturers that are working to speed up the production of anti-viral vaccines, seen as the first line of defense against bird flu. The money was part of $3.8 billion Congress has approved so far of the $7.1 billion Bush requested last fall for bird flu preparations.

Bush's plan, which anticipates as many as 2 million American deaths and widespread disruption of services in the event of a pandemic, puts heavy responsibility on local governments. They will need rapid delivery of vaccines in the event of an outbreak. Congress should quickly approve Bush's funding request in full and begin allocating much more money toward full-scale vaccine production.