Way back in the 1950s, most of us were petrified that some jackass would drop the bomb and annihilate the world.  Given the “love’ that exuded among the superpowers, the fear of an atomic bomb and its fallout destroying humanity was palpable.

(Just check out the book, On the Beach or the movie starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, among others.  After the (fictional) war, folks thought only Australia could provide a habitat for humanity- because it was so far from everywhere else.  But, even that didn’t work- because of wind currents and ocean flow patterns.)

Nowadays, we have crazy terrorists (not just foreigners, but also  American WrongWingNuts) who want to get their hands on a dirty bomb (one the exudes radiation, even if it doesn’t blow up lots of stuff), disease-carrying microbes, and the like.  So, they can render large portions of the globe uninhabitable for decades- or centuries- as they kill multitudes.  (Do we have enough iodine to counteract the rampant radiation poisoning or sufficient dosages to treat anthrax?)

So, it’s not surprising that Bill Gates wonders aloud (including a 27 April 2018 speech- the Shattuck Lecture-  at the Massachusetts Medical Society) what will happen if we are hit with a pandemic from a bioterrorism attack.  The issue is that each and every day the world becomes more interconnected, so diseases (natural or via an attack) will travel rapidly and completely when there is an outbreak.

After all, we still guess each and every year what viral variant we need to produce to protect the world from influenza.  And, this year, again, we guessed badly.  My aunt died in the 1918 influenza  pandemic- but she was but one of the some 100 million that perished worldwide.

In Gates’ speech, he lamented that the US has no strategy or ability to coordinate our health response to any pandemic.  (That’s not farfetched, even as I provide other information below.  Just reconsider the Puerto Rico situation post Irma and Maria.)  And, if we can’t do it with our resources (National Institutes of Health [NIH], Centers for Disease Control [CDC], Defense Advances Research Projects Agency [DARPA], plus more than a few other agencies), it’s pretty clear the rest of the world won’t be able to provide more than lip service.

Except…in a warehouse (or six) near DC and around the US, not well-marked.  (OK.  We all know that there are concrete berms all around the buildings; just like the government uses to protect all their “hidden” locations.)  If no one is present, the building is silent and dark.  (Motion detectors activate the lights).  But, these six locations constitute the $ 7 billion Strategic National Stockpile.This will supply the government response should there be a nuclear or bioterror attack.  These supplies and drugs have been under the control of the CDC. But, TheDonald plans to move oversight to HHS (Health & Human Services), claiming that will be more efficient.

This change means the ASPR (Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response for HHS). will still steer the project.  Its head is a former US Air Force doc, Dr. Robert Kadlec. (He’s NOT just a doc; he has degrees in tropical medicine and national security!)

I don’t know about you, but I trust the CDC far more than HHS to deliver drugs and supplies to where they are needed around the US.   And, let’s not forget that the CDC has been planning and testing this system forever.  (OK.  Since 1999, after the Oklahoma City and the first World Trade Center bombing.)

I also fear HHS is more prone to cave to lobbyists.  And, given the plethora of Ciproflaxin (a potent antibiotic), penicillin and  other antibiotics, vaccines (including enough dosages to treat every American should a smallpox epidemic develop), gloves, and syringes, I can see a whole lot of more expensive supplies being purchased.  Because HHS often falls prey to the new and shiny syndrome.

But, right now, there are “go packages”, some 130 containers of antibiotics, syringes, and supplies (50 tons) ready to be delivered where they are needed.  Totaling about 134,000 pallets.

And, there’s more to this program.  At least 1300 locations across the US have stored “chempacks”, which contain caches of nerve agent antidotes.

Even with these stockpiles, I have to agree with what Bill Gates intoned at the Shattuck Lecture…

[We need to find] a roadmap to create a comprehensive pandemic preparedness and response system.  We must find it and follow it because lives – in numbers too great to comprehend – depend on it.

Yes, it’s May Day!