KENNEDY RELEASES “TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE” REPORT DETAILING THE INADEQUACIES OF BUSH ADMINISTRATION PANDEMIC FLU PLAN OFFERS AMENDMENT TO STRENGTHEN FLU LIABILITY COMPENSATION

WASHINGTON, DC— Today, Senator Kennedy released a report, “Too Little Too Late: The Bush Administration’s Record of Failure in Preparing for Pandemic Flu.” The report details the failures of the Administration to adequately prepare the United States for a potential pandemic flu outbreak, the need for a strong liability compensation program and the steps that must be taken—both on a local and a federal level—in order for this country to be adequately prepared. The United States remains the only superpower without a comprehensive pandemic flu plan in place. Later today, the Bush Administration is introducing a revised plan initially introduced to the American public last fall. The plan to be released today is supposed to be the third and final part of the HHS plan, but still leaves us without a coherent overall national plan. Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy offered an amendment to the Emergency Supplemental bill to strengthen the compensation program for flu liability. Last December, a provision was inserted into a major spending bill to provide sweeping immunity from liability for manufacturers of experimental flu vaccines – as well as a broad range of other vaccines, drugs, and medical devices. The provision purported to provide compensation for first responders and others who might be injured by the products to which the legal immunity applied – but the promise of compensation was an empty one. Even though the provision was enacted as part of an appropriations bill, no funding was provided for the compensation program. As a result of this provision, drug companies can receive legal immunity even when they ignore basic safety precautions in the manufacture of their products, but injured patients have no access to compensation.The Kennedy amendment provides $289 million in funding available this year for the compensation program. These funds would give the assurance needed to health professionals, first responders, and others who will be first to receive experimental flu vaccines that they will be compensated if they are injured. If funds are not provided as part of this supplemental appropriation, there will be no further opportunity to assure that funds are available for the compensation program until next fiscal year. Below are Senator Kennedy’s floor remarks, a summary of his flu liability amendment and an executive summary of his comprehensive report on pandemic flu in the United States. Full reports are available upon request. FLOOR STATEMENT OF SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY ON FLU COMPENSATION AMENDMENT TO THE SUPPLEMENTAL (As Prepared for Delivery) The Administration seems to be suffering from a condition that could be called “CDD”— “Competence Deficit Disorder.” Whether it’s Iraq or Katrina or any other major crisis, the Administration’s incompetence has been appalling, and it’s cost the nation immensely at home and abroad. Our HELP committee has analyzed the Administration’s record of failure to prepare for a flu pandemic, and today we are releasing a report showing that they have failed to take the steps needed to see that America is ready for this major national challenge. They have failed to invest in hospital surge capacity, in needed information technology systems, in the public health surveillance and in the training programs that are needed for an effective response.The endless changes in the pandemic flu plan are a symbol of this failure. The Administration’s preparations for avian flu have been in such prolonged disarray that they’re releasing their third new plan this week.The Bush Administration has known of the need for a plan to prepare for a flu pandemic since the day it took office, but 2001 came and went without a plan, then 2002...and 2003...and 2004...and almost all of 2005 – and still no plan. In each of those years, the warnings of a potential pandemic grew ever louder, but were ignored.Finally, after years of delay, the President announced a plan last November – but that was just a glossy brochure. Later, the Administration released what was billed as a comprehensive plan – but that was for just one agency, and even that lacked essential details. Referring to a draft of that plan, GAO reported in June 2005 that it “does not establish the actions the Federal government would take to purchase or distribute influenza vaccine during a pandemic.” That assessment came five years after GAO sounded the alarm that these plans were urgently needed. A flu plan that doesn’t say how to distribute vaccine is about as useful as a hurricane plan that doesn’t say how to rescue people from a flood. Today, the Administration is trying again. Let’s hope it’s third time lucky – but I fear that the new plan will repeat the Administration’s discredited policy of leaving states and communities and individuals on their own to face a crisis. That was a disaster in responding to Hurricane Katrina – and it would be a disaster in a flu pandemic too. No amount of revision can disguise the fact that other nations have been implementing their plans for years, while we are waiting to read ours for the first time today. The United States is at the back of the line in ordering essential flu medicines and we’re at the bottom of the international league in having a coordinated national strategy. There is one area where the Administration acted swiftly – and that was to persuade its allies in Congress to slip a special favor for the drug industry into a major spending bill at the end of last year with no scrutiny and no debate. This lopsided provision gave drug companies a free pass to ignore even basic safety standards – but denied nurses, doctors, firefighters and other first responders compensation if they were injured by faulty vaccines. The provision included a sham of compensation, but had no funding.When the nation has promised compensation but failed to deliver, the result has been a disaster.Sending IOUs to downwinders instead of compensation was reprehensible. The failure to provide compensation for those injured by the smallpox vaccine doomed the smallpox vaccination campaign. Senator Frist recognized this, and we shouldn’t ignore his words on this issue. We can’t afford to make the same mistake with avian flu. Our health care professionals on the front line should not face ruin if they’re injured by an experimental flu vaccine. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment to provide compensation for persons injured by flu vaccines, and to join in giving much higher priority to this massive looming threat. Other nations have been preparing their response for years, and we’re far behind in planning ours. Time may not be on our side. We need to be much better prepared than we are today, and the clock is ticking.