Georges Benjamin Happen Quotations

What often happens in a situation like this is people latch onto very concrete things, like buying vaccine. That's not readiness. That's stockpiling. We have got to have first responders who know what their role is, people who can get shots into people's arms quickly, and hospitals who can handle patients.

The question is: what happens with our existing funding? We've already had $100 million in reductions in public-health grants in the president's 2006 budget request. Public health is still in a big hole.

No one should fool anyone that this is going to happen overnight ... because the health system is so complex.