White House officials have been quietly touting the fact that then-Senator Barack Obama introduced legislation in 2005 to beef up preparedness for pandemics. But how much does the president actually know about pandemics? I only recall it coming up once during the campaign, at a round table event in Indiana on July 16, 2008:

Two things strike me about this clip:

1) Obama gets some facts wrong. Yes, the Spanish flu ravaged Philadelphia – but it did not literally “wipe out half the city”. (At the time, Philadelphia had a population of about 1.5 million; the flu killed tens of thousands in the city.)

2) Just as he did yesterday, on the campaign trail Obama saw the threat of pandemics as a reason to push his public health agenda.

Also, to put Obama’s pandemic strategy in perspective, I commend:

1) President Bush’s answer to a reporter’s question about Avian flu in 2005.

2) Former HHS Deputy Secretary Tevi Troy’s guest column in today’s Wall Street Journal about the Bush Administration’s preparations for pandemics.

Tags: obama, pandemic, wall street journal