Flu Scare is Science Scare

President Obama declared swine flu is “not a cause for alarm” this morning even as he held up the disease scare as a reason to get better at science.

“If there was ever a day that reminded us of our shared stake in science and research, it’s today,” Obama told the National Academy of Sciences.

“We are closely monitoring the emerging cases of swine flu in the United States,” Obama said, a day after the White House held a press conference to detail the massive federal response and calm public fears.

“This is obviously a cause for concern and requires a heightened state of alert, but it’s not a cause for alarm,” Obama said, emphasizing that the public health emergency declared Sunday was “a precautionary tool” that lets the feds move money and resources.

“I’m getting regular updates on the situation from the responsible agencies, and the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the Centers for Disease Control, will be offering regular updates to the American people,” he said.

He linked all the efforts to respond comprehensively while also reassuring the nation to the main point of his morning speech — a call to for America to bone up on science.

“At such a difficult moment, there are those who say we cannot afford to invest in science, that support for research is somehow a luxury at moments defined by necessities,” he said. “I fundamentally disagree.”

He said the multi-agency scientific response to the swine flu threat was evidence.

“Our capacity to deal with a public health challenge of this sort rests heavily on the work of our scientific and medical community,” he said. “This is one more example of why we cannot allow our nation to fall behind. Unfortunately, that is exactly what has happened.”Obama added that he was setting a goal of having the country spend 3% of its gross domestic product on research and development.

Such a course, he argued, will keep the United States in the techonologial forefront.To push for that goal, he aannounced a new President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, which includes Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center head Harold Varmus, who is a co-chair of the panel.

- Michael McAuliff