What could the government do to prepare for an attack? And with preparations for other viruses and diseases having higher priority, would the US government really be ready to handle such a large-scale project?

One possibility is that the government might go ahead with recombination experiments in the present, and work ahead of an attack to create vaccines protecting against avian flu mutations. In fact, some vaccines may already work against (A) H5N1; “The H5N1 virus that has caused human illness and death in Asia is resistant to amantadine and rimantadine, two antiviral medications commonly used for influenza. Two other antiviral medications, oseltamavir and zanamavir, would probably work to treat influenza caused by H5N1 virus, but additional studies still need to be done to demonstrate their effectiveness.” (Source)

However, we have already seen the bungled efforts of the government to provide large amounts of a vaccine for the normal, predictable human flu virus; what might happen with a strange virus in the face of mass hysteria is unknown.

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