# 712
The Florida Legislature has yet to fund the purchase of antivirals, made available at a deep discount courtesy of the Federal government, and the time to act is running out.
This, from the Sun-Sentinel.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board
Posted April 28 2007 ISSUE: Florida on verge of refusing help.
Tax reform-addled legislators are neglecting their chief duty as elected officials: public safety. Their failure to act on a critical public health matter could bring a cataclysm of disease and death to Florida.
A legislative conference committee has refused, in the human services and health care appropriations bill, to include money to protect the state in the event of an avian flu pandemic. If that stands, it will make Florida the only state to turn down federal assistance to protect its people.
Participating states use the money to purchase, at a steep discount, antiviral medicines from the federal government. It's estimated the program could protect up to 4.8 million Floridians.
Gov. Charlie Crist wanted the Legislature to allocate $36.7 million for a full supply of the medicine. Instead he's getting zilch. Even a compromise for less than the full amount would be better than nothing. With only a week to go in the annual session, Crist and legislative leaders must jump in and wield heavy influence to make sure at least half of what's deemed necessary finds its way into the final budget.
Without the money for antivirals, if there is a flu pandemic, an estimated 5.3 million Floridians could get sick and 149,000 could die. The state's economy could suffer to the tune of $38.7 billion.
Experts say an avian flu pandemic is virtually inevitable, though not imminent. The state is deeply mistaken if it thinks it can join the antiviral program later if necessary.
Once a pandemic starts, it will be too late for Florida. That makes it a gross dereliction of duty for the Legislature not to avail itself of this easy, low-cost assistance for a potentially high-cost pandemic.
Georgia's governor vetoed this year's state budget because it initially lacked money for antivirals. If his Florida counterpart is serious about making sure our state receives this crucial protection, he should have his veto pen poised as well.
BOTTOM LINE: There's still time, if the leadership acts, to include money for discounted antiviral drugs in the budget.
Strong words. A gross dereliction of duty.
But certainly apropos. A failure to purchase these antivirals now could result in the deaths of thousands of Floridians should a pandemic erupt.
No one can say with certainty that a pandemic will occur in the next year, or even five. Right now, scientists watching the H5N1 virus fear the odds are fairly strong, but we might get lucky.
The window to purchase these antivirals closes this week. After that, if we can get them at all, we will pay nearly 6 times as much for for them than with this federally brokered discount. But the higher cost is probably a moot point. Once a pandemic is imminent, these drugs will probably be unobtainable at any price.
No one will remember, or even care, if five years from now no pandemic has occurred, and we are forced to throw away these medicines. These antivirals are an insurance policy, and the $37 million dollars are the premiums.
The Sun-Sentinel editorial board is right. The governor needs to get his veto pen ready.
The stakes are simply too high not to act.
