Bombing The Bird Flu?

Dr. Henry I. Miller, writing at TCS Daily, proposes A Bird Flu Manhattan Project. For those of you not up on the latest looming medical calamities, the scientific community is more than a little concerned about the potential of a flu virus that has been killing birds in China for a decade, and is rapidly spreading around the globe via bird migration, to trigger a human influenza pandemic. The H5N1 virus is currently contagious from birds to humans, and the fear is that the virus will mutate into something easily transmitted from human to human. The virus has proven quite deadly to people, so a mutation of that kind would certainly warrant great concern.

I've been watching the development of this story for a while now, and have seen both alarmist viewpoints and cautions against panic. The most reasonable discussions tend to come to the conclusion that whether or not this particular virus turns into a major threat to humans, at some point we are going to face a pandemic of some sort, if history is any indication, especially given the way the globe has shrunk with the ever-increasing ease of transportation. Our potential to create enough vaccine to face any pandemic, by all accounts, is woefully inadequate. Currently, new scientific approaches are hindered by FDA regulation and the lack of financial profitability, and there are nowhere near enough facilities available for the mass production of an effective vaccine, once one is developed. Dr. Miller believes we need to address the problems created by government regulation and financial disincentive that have made vaccine development of all kinds a shrinking field, and prepare for possible pandemic now, while there's still time to develop effective countermeasures.

The Manhattan Project approach seems to be a wise suggestion; let the government spearhead medical advances previously hindered by its own bureaucracy. Dr. Miller's article isn't all negative. Quite the contrary. There is some encouraging progress on the scientific front. Those advances will affect our ability to immunize the world's populations against disease of all sorts, not just the bird flu. That is worth some investment. What the doctor is suggesting is that the government start acting like a conduit for advancement, rather than a bureaucratic roadblock. The whole notion is a little counter-intuitive, and might take a bit of getting used to, but wouldn't that be an adjustment we'd all be happy to make?