# 2675
Secretary Michael O. Leavitt
At a time when it is deemed fashionable to pillory the outgoing administration, I wanted to take a moment to publicly thank Secretary Michael O. Leavitt for his work as the head of the HHS in spreading the pandemic preparedness message far and wide.
Are he and I in agreement on every public health issue?
No, certainly not. But that doesn't prevent me from appreciating his hard work and leadership - particularly on pandemic issues - during his four year stewardship of the HHS.
His contributions to our nation's preparedness are significant, and worthy of our thanks as his tour of duty comes to an end.
Beginning in late 2005, Secretary Leavitt became very vocal about the need for our nation to prepare, at all levels, for a pandemic.
Leavitt made an impressive 50-state pandemic awareness tour in 2006, meeting with officials from every state in the union to urge that they prepare for a pandemic.
He pushed for every state to develop a comprehensive pandemic plan, and he oversaw the creation of pandemicflu.gov, one of the most comprehensive government web sites on the Internet.
Leavitt has also reached out to the public through the Internet in ways never before attempted by a cabinet level official.
His office invited bloggers from the private sector to weigh in on pandemic issues for five weeks in the Pandemic Leadership Blog of 2007. There were no pre-conditions, or rules, over what any of us might write.
That was a bold stroke for a government sponsored event, and it attracted tens of thousands of visitors to the site.
Following the success of that endeavor, Leavitt became a blogger in his own right. His blogs are offline right now, but will soon become a part of the HHS Archive.
The HHS has even established a Twitter presence.
Secretary Leavitt has been refreshingly blunt about the pandemic threat, stating many times:
"Any community that fails to prepare with the expectation that somehow the federal government will come to their rescue at the last moment will be tragically disappointed."
Although I was invited to attend a meeting with Secretary Leavitt, to my regret, I never actually got to meet him. It was a crowded venue, and everyone there wanted a word with the Secretary. I hoped to corner him during the lunch break, but alas, he had to leave early.
I did, however, get a chance to observe him for several hours as we worked through a pandemic table top exercise.
He was obviously concerned, engaged, well informed, and seemed very forthright in his comments. I was impressed with just how personable and accessible he was.
Were it not for the name tags, and rank insignia worn in that room, you'd never had guessed you were surrounded by high ranking military and cabinet officials.
The same could be said for everyone I've dealt with at the HHS.
Stephanie Marshall, Director of Strategic Communications for the HHS, and Christina Pearson, HHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs have both extended courtesy to this blogger, and to others in the Internet Flu Community.
And to them, my thanks go as well.
Michael Leavitt, I hope, will be best remembered for his pioneering work in starting to prepare the nation for a pandemic. I suspect his efforts will save a lot of lives down the road.
The job isn't done, of course. There is still much left for the next administration to do. But great strides have been made, compared to where we were in 2005.
And for that, we have Secretary Michael O. Leavitt, and his staff at the HHS, to thank.
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