Coronavirus: George Bush warned America to prepare for a pandemic flu in 2005

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By Wilson Kakuru 1,603
George Bush seemed to know what would happen after an outbreak of a pandemic flu. Courtesy photo

George W Bush warned that the US needed to start preparing for a pandemic, while he was still in office.

In 2005, Mr Bush gave a speech at the National Institutes of Health, where he outlined the need to prepare for a global outbreak.

“A pandemic is a lot like a forest fire,” the former US president said in the video resurfaced by ABC.

Mr Bush predicted the situation the US currently finds itself in, with a lack of medical supplies, including masks and ventilators, that are needed to tackle Covid-19.

“To respond to a pandemic, we need medical personnel and adequate supplies of equipment,” he said. “In a pandemic, everything from syringes to hospital beds, respirators masks and protective equipment would be in short supply.”

Dr Anthony Fauci, the chief infectious disease expert leading the US response to the pandemic, was in attendance the day of Mr Bush’s speech, as he highlighted the importance of a vaccine.

He told the audience that the manufacturing capacity needed to already be in place before an outbreak hit.

“If a pandemic strikes, our country must have a surge capacity in place that will allow us to bring a new vaccine on line quickly and manufacture enough to immunise every American against the pandemic strain,” he said.

ABC reports that the US put extra emphasis on pandemic preparations after Mr Bush’s speech, but that plans diminished as other crises took hold.

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