From the tail end of
this article
Quote:
The president also signed a bill to create a new agency within the Health and Human Services Department to oversee the development of medicine and equipment to respond to a bird flu pandemic or a bioterrorism attack.
"It will increase our preparedness and response capabilities for public health emergencies by increasing our medical surge capacity, strengthening our public health infrastructure, and clarifying the responsibilities of federal officials," Sen. Edward Kennedy
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A bit of what the bill does is here:
Linky
I love the last bit:
Quote:
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The bill does not identify any likely technology candidates for the new disease outbreak network, but critics call current HHS disease surveillance systems under management of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention a “money pit.” They say the systems lag behind CNN news reports in real-time monitoring of disease outbreaks.
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Sounds like the Brits have their act together on this already. The bill gives the Department of Health and Human Services two years to build a network that would detect catastrophic disease outbreaks. I hope we have 2 years. :blink: