http://www.alternet.org/story/28141/
Germ Boys and Yes Men
By Jeremy Scahill, The Nation. Posted November 14, 2005.
The man Bush appointed to handle federal response to a flu pandemic or bioterror attack is just a well-connected Republican lawyer with zero medical expertise.
In early November, George W. Bush, struggling to claw his way upward in polls that had acquired the consistency of quicksand after two months of blunders and disasters, launched a new PR blitz. The Administration declared it was taking charge of the nation's health and security with an all-out war on the flu (to be conducted with vaccines provided by well-connected pharmaceutical companies).
"Our country has been given fair warning of this danger to our homeland," Bush declared. "It's my responsibility as President to take measures now to protect the American people."
But if Bush hoped to wipe away the stain of Katrina -- and the memory of a hapless Michael Brown steering FEMA in circles while New Orleans drowned -- he should have thought twice about bringing up the specter of a public health emergency, because the man responsible for coordinating the federal response to a flu pandemic or bioterror attack could well be the next Michael Brown.
Meet Stewart Simonson. He's the official charged by Bush with "the protection of the civilian population from acts of bioterrorism and other public health emergencies" -- a well-connected, ideological, ambitious Republican with zero public health management or medical expertise, whose previous job was as a corporate lawyer for Amtrak.
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