George W. Bush's 2005 Warning Resurfaces: Waiting for a Pandemic to Start Preparing 'Will Be Too Late'

Amid widespread scrutiny of the federal authorities’s response to the spread of the novel coronavirus, a new report has highlighted a warning former President George W. Bush issued greater than a decade ago concerning the potential catastrophe of not being correctly prepared for a pandemic.

Speaking with former aides to President Bush, ABC News this week outlined his insistence on making an attempt to ready the nation for the subsequent main outbreak, which started after he picked up a ebook concerning the Spanish Flu of 1918 whereas on trip in 2005.

“He stated, ‘Look, this happens each 100 years. We'd like a national strategy,’ ” Fran Townsend, who served as an adviser on Homeland Safety, advised ABC in an article revealed Sunday. “He stated to me, ‘It might not happen on our watch, however the nation wants the plan.’ ”

Former adviser Karl Rove has additionally reflected on how the threat of a pandemic spread via the West Wing. “I’ve informed individuals more than as soon as during this final couple of months that as scary because the briefings have been concerning the struggle on terror, the scariest briefings I had at the White Home have been about pandemics,” he said to Fox News.

Although Bush, now 73, set out formidable plans to fund new know-how to develop vaccines and stockpile much-needed supplies like ventilators and face masks, ABC Information reported that as different crises got here to the forefront throughout his time in workplace, getting ready for the specter of an as-of-yet nonexistent pandemic took a back seat.

RELATED: Trump Says He Won’t Wear a Face Mask in Public Despite Federal Health Officials’ Recommendation

Pandemic preparedness was additionally the subject of a 2005 speech that Bush gave while addressing the Nationwide Institutes of Health.

“Seasonal flu is extremely harmful for some — individuals whose immune methods have been weakened by age or illness. But it isn't often life-threatening for many wholesome individuals. Pandemic flu is another matter,” he stated on the time, noting that “in contrast to seasonal flu, most individuals haven't built up resistance to it.”

“At this moment, there isn't a pandemic influenza in the USA or the world. But when historical past is our guide, there's cause to be concerned,” he continued. “A pandemic is quite a bit like a forest hearth: If caught early, it may be extinguished with restricted injury; if allowed to smolder undetected, it might grow to an inferno that spreads shortly beyond our capability to regulate it.”

“If we watch for a pandemic to seem, will probably be too late to organize," President George W. Bush warned in 2005.

The strategies the U.S. is implementing now to struggle COVID-19 came out of labor carried out by the Bush administration, Tom Bossert says. https://t.co/lzuobb2B0Z pic.twitter.com/eocaRtr1q5

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) April 5, 2020

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

RELATED: Illinois Says Federal Government Shipped Them 300,000 of the Wrong Kind of Protective Masks

In a very resonant second more than a decade earlier than the coronavirus emerged, Bush warned of the devastation that would happen if People weren't properly ready.

“It's important that our nation talk about and handle the specter of pandemic flu now,” he stated. “There isn't a pandemic flu in our country or on the planet presently — but when we await a pandemic to seem, it is going to be too late to organize, and someday many lives might be needlessly lost because we did not act at present.”

Final week, the White Home coronavirus process pressure announced they consider that, at greatest, between 100,000 and 240,000 people might die in America from the novel coronavirus pandemic. But officials confused then that with social distancing and different counter-measures, they might work to ensure a lower demise toll.

As of Monday, there had been at least 336,776 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. and more than 9,000 individuals have died, in response to out there knowledge.

As information about the coronavirus pandemic rapidly modifications, PEOPLE is dedicated to offering the newest knowledge in our coverage. A few of the info in this story might have changed after publication. For the newest on COVID-19, readers are inspired to make use of on-line assets from CDC, WHO, and local public health departments. To assist present docs and nurses on the entrance strains with life-saving medical assets, donate to Direct Relief here.

Src: George W. Bush's 2005 Warning Resurfaces: Waiting for a Pandemic to Start Preparing 'Will Be Too Late'
==============================
New Smart Way Get BITCOINS!
CHECK IT NOW!
==============================