Scott McPherson's Web Presence

To the leadership of the nation of Indonesia:

Today, as you know, marks the third anniversary of the terrible tsunami that ravaged your nation of 18,000 islands.  The world grieves today, as it did the day after Christmas, 2004.  And we continue to grieve at your loss of life, as we grieve today for the deaths due to the mudslides that have hit your nation and killed scores of your citizens.

So long as the human race has any modicum of compassion left in it, the world will rush aid to your people.  May we never let you down on that score.

But the world also works on a principle of reciprocity.  The ying and the yang, if you will.  Quid pro quo.  And there is a way the nation of Indonesia can help repay the world for its ongoing compassion.

And that is by showing some compassion back.  Simply put:  Please share all of your H5N1 human, swine and avian samples with the world community -- beginning today.

You believe you have some sort of stake in the game with your samples.  You believe you have some currency.  And it is understandable that you would want to try and leverage the little you have on behalf of your people. 

However, the world's next pandemic may not start at your door.  Your versions of bird flu may not even start the next pandemic.  And then again, perhaps your nation is indeed at the eye of the viral typhoon to come.  Only God/Allah knows the answer to that question -- and He ain't giving the answer away easily.

There is an army of scientists -- legions of them, on every continent on Earth save Antarctica -- that are prepared to work with you on this issue.  These men and women can help decipher the clues to the next mutation that might turn H5N1 into the most efficient, ruthless killer of human life ever seen on this planet. 

To withhold this viral information in the hope that you can somehow get into line first among equals is simply not right.  Remember that a vaccine is probably eight months away from a pandemic's start, in the best of circumstances.  Time and again the world has shown it is ready to fly antivirals into your nation in the hope that the Next Pandemic can be stopped at the rural village level, before it has the chance to mutate and enter your largest cities.  And that is where the First Wave will be fought.  With antivirals, possibly at your front door.  Not with vaccine.

Your contract with America's Baxter Pharmaceuticals is understandable.  Your desire to begin injecting your citizens with prepandemic vaccine underscores your nation's obvious and justified preoccupation with this disease.  And if indeed the Indonesian strain is the trigger of the next pandemic, I am sure the shots and the royalties from Baxter will be most helpful.  As you also know, H5N1 is a mutating wonder.  What guarantees are there that any prepandemic vaccine will even work?  Even if Baxter's formula does work, I do not believe Baxter alone will not be able to manufacture enough vaccine for your entire nation.  Sooner or later, you will be calling upon the collective manufacturing capability of the rest of the world to help you.  And the perception that Indonesia may be putting profits ahead of lives creates global enemies that your nation cannot (literally) afford to have. 

Also heed the lessons of 1976 and Swine Flu H1N1.  Read the history of that debacle before you store vaccine "in people, not in warehouses."  Learn from the mistakes the US made in 1976 and 1977. 

Above all, practice proper diplomacy.  The world has a long memory.  If indeed the next pandemic comes from an Indonesian strain, and your government was withholding the strain's viral molecular information in order to obtain financial and/or vaccine guarantees, and the world determines that Indonesia could have saved countless millions of lives by sharing virus samples now and deliberately chose not to:  Know that the world's compassion has limits. 

Choose wisely..