Get ready for bird flu, it's sure to come, leaders insist

Don't rely on the government to rescue you in the event of a pandemic like avian flu, Gov. Bush warned Thursday.

By DAVID ROYSE

TALLAHASSEE - Florida residents need to educate themselves now about the avian flu and prepare themselves for the prospect of a global outbreak of the disease in people, public health officials said Thursday, warning that it is likely a question of when, not if, a flu outbreak will hit this country.

''When it comes to a pandemic we are overdue and we're under-prepared,'' U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said, addressing a summit of state and federal officials on what Florida needs to do to prepare for a global flu outbreak.

Gov. Jeb Bush said the state doesn't have all the hospital beds it would need if a real pandemic were to emerge and had no prospects for changing that. And by its very nature, a pandemic would affect the whole country -- so there'd be no place to send the people that Florida's hospitals couldn't handle.

''There would be no mutual aid, we'd have to take care of this ourselves,'' Bush said.

The problems would be myriad: besides overflowing hospitals, schools would close and business would be crippled by absenteeism; there might be runs on food, cash, water and other critical items; and tourism could be devastated.