Dear MoveOn member,

We've all heard the terrible warnings about the risk of an influenza pandemic from an avian flu virus. But the Bush administration official in charge of making sure America is ready has no experience related to his job\ufffdhe's a political appointee. And, a botched response could affect millions of Americans.

Stewart Simonson is the Bush administration's point man for a flu pandemic but he has no public health management experience. He got his job because he is a close associate of former Health & Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.

[link|http://political.moveon.org/flupandemic/?id=6115-4835072-xr_CimD808k6lo8FEuawuQ&t=2|http://political.mov...8k6lo8FEuawuQ&t=2]

Your action today will draw attention to Simonson when we deliver the petitions, and will pressure Leavitt into acting. After you sign please forward this e-mail to your friends, family and colleagues.

Simonson is Assistant Secretary for Public Health Emergency Preparedness at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). His job before joining HHS was as corporate secretary and counsel for Amtrak when Thompson was chief of the rail service. Prior to Amtrak, Simonson was staff lawyer for Thompson when he was governor of Wisconsin. In short, he is not qualified for a public health job that hundreds of millions of people are counting on.

This isn't just a case of resume inflation. Simonson doesn't seem to have a grasp on the very important work he is supposed to be doing right now. At a hearing in the House of Representatives in July, Simonson claimed he had the money he needed to purchase influenza vaccine and antiviral medication. The very next day, his office submitted a funding request to Congress seeking an additional $150 million for flu vaccine and antiviral medication. Last month the Congress gave another $4 billion for the effort.

The Department of Health and Human Services is about to announce a new influenza plan. They need a highly qualified and respected professional at the helm when implementation of the plan begins. That is why it is urgent that Leavitt replace Simonson immediately. Why petition Leavitt? It is likely Leavitt will be more responsive than President Bush or even Congress. He wants a scandal-free campaign to prepare for a flu pandemic. Will you sign our petition to replace Simonson with somebody with expert credentials?

[link|http://political.moveon.org/flupandemic/?id=6115-4835072-xr_CimD808k6lo8FEuawuQ&t=3|http://political.mov...8k6lo8FEuawuQ&t=3]

The revelations about Simonson's lack of experience couldn't come at a more challenging time. On Saturday The New York Times reported that the nation is gravely unprepared for a flu pandemic after obtaining a draft of the HHS influenza plan. We have only 2 percent of the courses of antiviral treatments we'll need. The plan predicts a worst-case scenario in which nearly 2 million Americans would die and 8.5 million would be hospitalized. Costs would exceed $450 billion. Finally, the report says we need to expand vaccine manufacturing capacity by more than ten fold.

There are qualified people who could do this important job. Simonson replaced a genuine expert, Jerome Hauer, who had served as Director of Emergency Management for New York City and led the George Washington University Response to Emergencies and Disasters Institute.7

Many people are calling Simonson the "next Michael Brown" in reference to the lack of experience of the former FEMA director who botched the federal response to Hurricane Katrina. Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) released a fact sheet about cronyism in the Bush administration that blew the whistle on Simonson.8

The threat of an influenza pandemic is very serious. The 1918 flu pandemic is estimated to have killed 50 million people\ufffdthe largest numbers dying in just weeks. In the 1950s and 1960s smaller flu pandemics in the United States killed tens of thousands.9 Our government needs a serious response to this serious threat. Please act today.

Thanks for all you do.