The candidates and pandemic (Public Health)

I want to confess at the outset that I was inspired to discuss this after reading "Politics and pandemics" at Crof's excellent avian flu blog, H5N1. I originally started following Crof's blog when I was a pandemic coordinator, and despite being a little burned out on pandemic-related issues I will continue to follow it because of the high quality of the information. If you are interested in learning about avian flu and pandemic flu check out H5N1.

The post referenced a Popular Science article, Preventing and Outbreak: McCain and Obama on Pandemics (if the link doesn't work, try here and scroll down). The article discusses the candidates answers and records on pandemic issues, as part of the Science Debate 2008 series. The article itself doesn't contain much information other than a sampling of a few pandemic- and bioterror-related bills and the candidates' positions on them. More information is available here, where the candidates answers are listed side-by-side. The specific bills mentioned are:

• HR 3448, the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 - Both voted for
  
• S 1765, the Bioterrorism Preparedness Act of 2001 - ( Senate version of HR 3448)
• S 375, the Flu Prevention Act of 2005 - (provided $150 million a year for vaccine development and production, awareness campaigns and other preparations for a pandemic) 
• HR 4939, the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Hurricane Recovery of 2006 - (provided $2.3 billion for avian and pandemic flu efforts)

Voting records are probably more useful in this case than the candidates' answers, because the answers read like the campaign statements they are. My opinion is that the statements of the candidates towards these issues is less important than will be the identity of the next Secretary of Health and Human Services. While it is true that the President is in position to set the tone of the administration, the various Secretaries have far more direct impact on the way that tone is turned into action.

The short story from the statements is that both major candidates appear to take the threat of pandemic seriously. Hopefully that means that pandemic preparedness will be a priority, both in terms of manpower and money, for the next four years.