In 2005, George W Bush Did What?

He was scared and started work on planning for a world pandemic…what happened to the GOP since then?

In the summer of 2005, President George W. Bush was on vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, when he began flipping through an advance reading copy of a new book about the 1918 flu pandemic. He couldn’t put it down.

When he returned to Washington, he called his top homeland security adviser into the Oval Office and gave her the galley of historian John M. Barry’s “The Great Influenza,” which told the chilling tale of the mysterious plague that “would kill more people than the outbreak of any other disease in human history.”

“You’ve got to read this,” Fran Townsend remembers the president telling her. “He said, ‘Look, this happens every 100 years. We need a national strategy.'”

hus was born the nation’s most comprehensive pandemic plan — a playbook that included diagrams for a global early warning system, funding to develop new, rapid vaccine technology, and a robust national stockpile of critical supplies, such as face masks and ventilators, Townsend said.

George W. Bush…yes that guy.

In a November 2005 speech at the National Institutes of Health, Bush laid out proposals in granular detail — describing with stunning prescience how a pandemic in the United States would unfold. Among those in the audience was Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leader of the current crisis response, who was then and still is now the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Yeah, Dr. Anthony Fauci…yes that guy.

and finally, in contrast to President Donald Trump, President George W. Bush:

Bush declined, through a spokesman, to comment on the unfolding crisis or discuss the current response. But his remarks from 15 years ago still resonate.

“If we wait for a pandemic to appear,” he warned, “it will be too late to prepare. And one day many lives could be needlessly lost because we failed to act today.”

emphasis mine

“If we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare.”

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12 thoughts on “In 2005, George W Bush Did What?

    1. yes that happened. But President Obama isn’t the president in 2020 nor is he running for president. In the meantime, I didn’t notice any news items stating that President Trump had restocked those depleted items but I did see that some of those still in stock were expired. He apparently didn’t fix that either.

      And look. I am pretty careful to be respectful of all elected officials…even those I disagree with…so next time you want to refer to one of our presidents, please use his title and official name.

      1. Sorry Ed. I was under the impression that the comments were under less formal rules. Going forward I’ll use titles and official names for Presidents. And you’re right, our emotions and passion might motivate our comments but should not dictate the words.

        1. yeah they are but given the increased level of vitriol in the nation and the state as a whole, I prefer more decorum here. Thanks for understanding. Your contributions here are appreciated.

      1. Cindy, you can cite all the anonymously sourced propaganda pieces you’d like, but in the end, you’ll find it impossible to bury the facts. The supplies were drawn down in 2009. They should have been replaced in 2010. President Obama and the democrats had the House and a super majority in the Senate. They had all the power. They had all the responsibility. An accountable, wise, and smart President and Party would have restored the stocks. They did not, forcing some to consider and others to confirm the contrapositive.

          1. Thanks Cindy. Can you find any links in your cite in the passage…

            “But efforts to bulk up the stockpile fell apart in tense standoffs between the Obama White House and congressional Republicans, according to administration and congressional officials involved in the negotiations. ”

            Didn’t think so. Thanks for playing.

            But more to my point, all the whining in your link takes place a full year or more after President Obama and a democratic super majority should have had those stocks restored. Cindy, ask yourself, why was this not done in 2010? If you find any reasons other than short sighted, foolhardy, and dumb, let us know.

            1. I do not suggest for 1 minute that a few administrations haven’t dropped the ball, on the other hand: “Lies are easy to get away with if they are repeated often enough and given voice by many different people.
              Repeat a lie often enough and that lie often becomes conventional wisdom. Repeating a lie doesn’t change the lie into the truth, it changes the people hearing the repeated lie.” When Obama Had “Total Control of Congress”
              https://www.beaconjournal.com/article/20120909/NEWS/309099447

              BTW, you might want to read “Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives” – then get back to me.

              1. A good reply Cindy.

                It sounds like a bit of a slog and I’m dubious that a correspondent from GQ could add anything to the subject, but I’ll check the book out if I get the chance.

                Thanks,

                Nemo

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