A pandemic occurs in many localities simultaneously. Therefore, much of the planning falls to state and local governments. In 2008, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said, “Any community that fails to prepare [for this type of health crisis] with the expectation the federal government will come to the rescue will be tragically wrong.” Leavitt added: “It won’t be because the federal government lacked the will or it wouldn’t be because we lacked the wallet. It would be because there’s no way to respond everywhere at once.”
Last year, state legislators and other elected officials had the opportunity to heed Leavitt’s advice, that every state stockpile a sufficient amount of antiviral medicines (Tamiflu) to protect the state’s population in an influenza pandemic. Ned Calonge of the Colorado Health Department opposed that plan. As a result, Colorado did not do what 45 other states did, so now Coloradans face the swine flu outbreak without a state stockpile of Tamiflu.
As legislators, we were warned by the federal government, the World Health Organization, and other leading health experts that we were closer to a pandemic then at any other time in our history. The Harvard School of Public Health reported in 2006, “We are at a relatively high risk for a virus to emerge that could cause a pandemic” and “trends exist which indicate the amount of virus in the world is immense.”
Instead of assuring a supply of Tamiflu for Colorado residents, the state Department of Public Health told legislators that we should focus on preventive measures such as isolating the sick. This approach — as well as more extreme precautions like quarantines — is likely to fail, especially in metro areas like Denver. They did not support the purchase of more antivirals. Some of us in the legislature disagreed, but the current administration opposed our advice that the state purchase enough Tamiflu to provide protection for first responders, hospital workers, and others we need to help us fight an outbreak, and minimize the impacts on our economy.
We now face the consequences of that failure to act. Hopefully, Colorado will skirt any negative impact from the lack of preparedness.
Other states are rushing to increase the availability of these medicines in light of the current crisis, but Colorado is not stepping up to the plate. The Health Department says the federal government will supply enough antivirals from its stockpile to protect Coloradans, but there is no guarantee. Don’t be surprised if the federal government helps residents from larger, more politically powerful states that are already purchasing their own supply and demanding these drugs for their citizens. Bottom line, Colorado should have stockpiled a supply when it was available in 2008.
Influenza pandemics have occurred three times in the 20th century (1918, 1957 and 1968). No one wants this flu pandemic to spread, but the World Health Organization has now raised the alert level to a “5” out of “6” (the highest). A pandemic could cripple the state’s economy, and there’s no guarantee that we can obtain these antivirals in time even if we allocated the money right now.
That is no excuse not to try.
Colorado has many good emergency preparedness and influenza pandemic plans, but we need to do everything we can to ensure a stockpile of antiviral medications as part of our response. Our citizens deserve no less.
Republican State Rep. Don Marostica of Loveland represents House District 51.
