"Bird flu threat not so grave, CDC chief says" (or did she?)

This is another topic in which vaccines are only one component of a much broader issue (though a very important component, as we've written about previously), but this story in the Tacoma News Tribune warrants a mention (thanks to our friends at blog.bioethics.net). Here's what the News Tribune reports about a pandemic flu planning summit held in Washington state on Friday...

"'There is no evidence it will be the next pandemic,' Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said of avian flu. There is 'no evidence it is evolving in a direction that is becoming more transmissible to people.'

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She did not say what had changed the thinking of health care officials about bird flu, but said that, at this point, there is 'no reason to think it ever will' pass easily between people. Given those facts, bird flu, like SARS, swine flu and other once widely publicized health threats, might never become a significant human illness."

It's dangerous to assume there's been a major shift in government thinking based on a few isolated quotes presented in a single news story. In fact, another report of the same event, this one in The Olympian (Olympia, WA), quotes Dr. Gerberding in a way that drastically alters how her comments could be taken...

"'Pandemics do happen, and we would be foolish not to prepare for one,' said Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There's no evidence that the so-called Asian bird flu will become the next global scourge — and there's no evidence it won't, she said." (emphasis added)

All of a sudden, her statements seem much more in line with what we've been hearing for months. It should be noted that there's no evidence of any shift in thinking at CDC.gov or pandemicflu.gov, the government's one-stop clearinghouse of information on the topic. In fact, today's Washington Post reports that a final pandemic flu response plan is nearing completion, one that includes 300 contingencies ranging from latex glove stockpiles to printing U.S. currency overseas if necessary.