PRESS RELEASES   On a Wing and a Prayer 11/30/2005 Oklahoma Health Center News Vol. 11 No. 11 November 2005 By Michael D. Anderson, Ph.D., President, Presbyterian Health Foundation Comin' in on a wing and a prayer Comin' in on a wing and a prayer Tho' there's one motor gone, we can still carry on, Comin' in on a wing and a prayer. -Harold Adamson, circa 1943 Emerson wrote, "Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All of life is an experiment." Many forces of science and governments are converging on a great experiment: How to ward off a pandemic, THE BIRD FLU. A nurse told me in the hallway of a hospital, "I didn't know flu could come from animals and chickens, and I grew up on an Oklahoma chicken farm." I asked her, "Have your heard about the origins of A.I.D.S?" "Many of our diseases come the world of animals." Read the best seller, "Guns, Germs and Steel." The Bird Flu is one of two current science issues on the front pages of newspapers around the world. The Washington Post ran a story on Biotech companies gearing up to produce a vaccine against avian flu and the qualifier that "their products could end up on a shelf" if there is no immediate need. Meanwhile the Senate Health Committee has approved a bill to create a new agency to support development of treatments and vaccines to defend against natural pandemics, like the avian flu, and bioterrorist attacks. The secrecy provisions of the bill are causing alarm to liberal watch dog groups concerned about liberties and free access to government sponsored programs. The proposed agency would be precluded from the open records and meetings laws that pertain to nearly all other government agencies. Those who support the streamlined development process say it is necessary to succeed against the potential threats. Emerson was right, life is an experiment. At all levels, government policy, scientific research, economic costs, we are constantly experimenting. Life is not designed for the squeamish, is it. From the other side of the planet, this earthy village where a sick chicken in China makes headlines in O.K.C., we hear from a Vietnamese doctor who has clinical experience with dozens of victims of avian or Bird Flu. The drug being stockpiled around the world to combat the potential pandemic is "useless against the virus." (This from Jonathan Carr-Brown, of The Sunday Times, Dec.04,2005, London) Dr. Nguyen Tuong Van runs the intensive care unit at the Centre (editor note British Spelling) for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi. She treated 41 victims of "H5N1." Van followed World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines and used the Tamiflu given her. Van, a well trained clinician, conclude TAMIFLU HAS NO POSITIVE EFFECT ON AVIAN FLU. This is shocking news for the scientists and politicians who have expended millions of dollars for this remedy. The public whose awareness is being heightened by the media, which is the media's job, will not have its fears assuaged by this new "news." Van said, "We place no importance on using this drug on our patients. Tamiflu is really only meant for treating ordinary type A flu. It was not designed to combat H5N1. Tamiflu is useless." Dr. Van has broad experience. She treated patients with Sars, the respiratory condition linked to birds. She added that the only way to keep patients alive is to support all their vital organs, including the liver and kidneys, with modern technology such as ventilators and dialysis machines. The pandemic may be coming in "on a wing" and we trust that we shall have a "prayer" in dealing with a grand pandemic that challenges humankind in this "experiment called life."