The more I hear about America’s over $7 Billion Bird Flu preparations, the more I feel we are engaging in an unwise gamble with taxpayer dollars.

Last Friday CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding was on the Sean Hannity’s radio show. During the interview Hannity asked her repeatedly if she felt certain the bird flu would one day spread quickly between humans. She continually avoided giving a firm answer and finally answered with something along the lines of “we just can’t say for certain”. Because we don’t know if it ever will. But our President already wants to throw over $7 billion dollars at it! Hannity also asked her if she has stocked up on Tamiflu at home. She said “no”! He then asked her if she was planning to stock up on Tamiflu at home and she again answered “no”! This is very telling, because the CDC Director herself is not stocking up on the drug that some think might help if there was a Bird Flu pandemic. She’s not rushing out to buy any for her family. She said she does not have any at home. It could be said that she does not want to start a panic, but if she felt a real danger I think she would have purchased a little. Just as we were told to keep a little anti-terrorism kit at home with some duct tape . But I’m sure sales of Tamiflu are up because of fear! And our President has proposed that $1 billion of our tax dollars be spent stockpiling it! Dr. Gerberding also pointed out that they are already finding new strains of the Bird Flu that are resistant to drugs like Tamiflu! But our government wants to stockpile it and spend billions making a vaccine, that may not work depending on the type of strain, if the Bird Flu ever spreads quickly between humans to begin with!

This is a total waste in my opinion. Focus on isolating birds, testing them and other basic research. But don’t spend billions of our money on something that we have not seen occur yet and that has not even affected a single bird in the USA yet.

I should point out that Dr. Gerberding seemed to support the President’s efforts and mentioned that we should not take the threat lightly. I totally agree with her that we should not take this lightly, but I also do not feel we should put over $7 billion into something that may never happen. We know terrorists want to kill Americans here on US soil and abroad. I’ve got no problem with $7 billion spent on fighting terrorism. I didn’t have a problem with the $87 billion either . I wanted my Senators to vote for the $87 billion, before John Kerry voted against it .