Bush Outlines Flu Remedies

President Bush, warning that the United States is at risk in a possible worldwide flu outbreak, said Tuesday he is asking Congress for $7.1 billion to prepare the country for a possible flu epidemic, including $1.2 billion to immunize 20 million Americans against the current strain of bird flu.

"At this moment there is no pandemic influenza in the United States or the world. But if history is our guide, there's reason to be concerned," Mr. Bush said in a speech at the National Institutes of Health. "Scientists and doctors cannot tell us where or when the next pandemic will strike or how severe it will be. But most agree, at some point we are likely to face another pandemic."

The president also said the government must approve liability protection for the makers of lifesaving vaccines.

In the past three decades, the number of vaccine manufacturers in America has plummeted as the industry has been flooded with lawsuits," the president said. "Today there's only one manufacturer in the United States that can produce influenza vaccine."

The administration strategy includes:

• $1.2 billion for the government to buy enough doses of the vaccine against the current strain of bird flu to protect 20 million Americans;
• $1 billion to stockpile more anti-viral drugs that lessen the severity of the flu symptoms;
• $2.8 billion to speed the development of vaccines as new strains emerge, a process that now takes months;
• $583 million for states and local governments to prepare emergency plans to respond to an outbreak.

President Bush pointed out that the 1918 pandemic killed over a half million Americans and more than 20 million people across the globe. "One-third of the U.S. population was infected, and life expectancy in our country was reduced by 13 years.

"The 1918 pandemic was followed by pandemics in 1957 and 1968, which killed tens of thousands of Americans and millions across the world," Mr. Bush said.

More than 40 percent of doctors surveyed believe the government and the health care industry are unprepared to deal with a bird flu outbreak, according to a nationwide survey of doctors.

"Physicians had about the same degree of concern for the preparation of the medical community as they did for the federal government," Prof. Christopher Borick of Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania told CBS News correspondent Peter Maer.

Bird flu has been documented in Asia and has spread to Europe but has not reached the United States, the president said. "Our country has been given fair warning of this danger to our homeland and time to prepare," he said.

Bird flu "will migrate or mutate slowly towards the type of flu that can be transmitted from person to person. We would not be ready if it were to happen instantly," Leavitt admitted to Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.

The administration plan, to be released in more detail on Wednesday, calls for more than stockpiling shots.

"The first part of our strategy is to detect outbreaks before they spread across the world," whether caused by the worrisome Asian bird flu or some other super-strain of influenza, Mr. Bush said.

It will also stress a new method of manufacturing flu vaccines - growing the virus to make them in easy-to-handle cell cultures instead of today's cumbersome process that uses millions of chicken eggs - as well as incentives for new U.S.-based vaccine factories to open.

Such steps will take several years to implement, but the hope is that eventually they could allow production of enough vaccine to go around within six months of a pandemic's start.

"The notion is that prevention beats therapy," said Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University, an influenza specialist who advises the government on vaccination and has received some information about the plan.

Hoping to spur the long-awaited pandemic plan, the Senate last week passed $8 billion in emergency funding for President Bush to spend on the preparations.