US "woefully unprepared" avian flu

Foodconsumer.org:

"C. Everett Koop, MD, and former US Surgeon General, writing in the current issue of Journal of Emergency Management, says this country's disaster response and healthcare systems will be easily overwhelmed by a major bio disaster such as an avian flu pandemic.

Eliot Grigg, Joseph Rosen, MD, and Dr. Koop published an article entitled 'The biological disaster challenge: Why we are least prepared for the most devastating threat and what we need to do about it' in the January/February issue of Journal of Emergency Management.

The authors contend that even though this country's recent response to natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, has been less than adequate, a bio disaster along the lines of an avian flu pandemic will be a 'much more complex and potentially devastating threat.' "