The bag of holding that seems to be the federal budget just keeps giving and giving.

AP reports:

President Bush outlined a $7.1 billion strategy Tuesday to prepare for the danger of a pandemic influenza outbreak, saying he wanted to stockpile enough vaccine to protect 20 million Americans against the current strain of bird flu as a first wave of protection.

The president also said the United States must approve liability protection for the makers of lifesaving vaccines. He said the number of American vaccine manufacturers has plummeted because the industry has been hit with a flood of lawsuits.

So we are guaranteeing profit for the makers of Tamiflu and other vaccines while reducing their liability should they not work or worse, harm people. Win, win, right?

The nation’s strategy starts with attempting to spot an outbreak abroad early and working to contain it before it reaches the United States.

How about letting private companies handle that risk and marshall the creativity of the private sector, then letting them either profit if they get it right or cut their losses should they get it wrong? The government isn’t going to ask for refunds should these vaccines fail.

But the administration plan, to be released in more detail on Wednesday, calls for more than stockpiling shots. It will stress a new method of manufacturing flu vaccines - growing the virus to make them in easy-to-handle cell cultures instead of today’s cumbersome process that uses millions of chicken eggs - as well as incentives for new U.S.-based vaccine factories to open.

It would be important to know why the easier-to-handle cell cultures aren’t already more profitable than the millions of chicken eggs. In this question there is already a determination made that the egg method is better than the cell culture method, despite the resources needed for all those eggs.