US flu plan: more questions than answers

The Washington Post, having been scooped by the New York Times on the acquisition of the US pandemic plan, now tells us: Flu Plan Leaves Many Decisions at Local Level. Maybe Katrina got to me more than it should have, but I translate that as "You're on your own, kid."

We also learn that the administration is playing peekaboo with the plan:

Federal officials refused to provide the latest version or to describe it in any detail. Several of the people most involved in the multi-year writing of the plan were traveling to Southeast Asia yesterday with Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and were unavailable.

Leavitt will visit at least four countries where influenza A/H5N1 -- also known as "bird flu" -- has killed or led to the culling of 140 million birds, as well as to 116 human cases and 60 deaths. Accompanying him on the 10-day trip are Jong Wook Lee, director general of the World Health Organization, and Margaret F.C. Chan, WHO's chief of pandemic influenza planning.

The trip's purpose, Leavitt said before departing, was to "emphasize the importance of this issue for the United States" and to stress the "need for the world community to be transparent and cooperative" in disease surveillance and reporting.

Transparency and cooperation apparently don't involve much input from the US public, however:

The final version of the pandemic preparedness plan is unlikely to be released until Leavitt returns. An HHS spokeswoman, Christina Pearson, said, "it's totally premature" to release the document now."We're still getting comments on the plan," she said.

I wonder who the commentators are. Osterholm is giving the plan some support, saying "There have been tremendous improvements in the plan over the last week or 10 days." This is not encouraging either, since it implies a so-so plan suddenly being buffed up in a series of anxious meetings, while Mr. Leavitt flies off to a series of photo ops in exotic foreign lands.