As the Kerry campaign released an email barrage tonight on the ways in which Bush has bungled protecting the country against the flu, the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) has weihed in by releasing an article on the internet on an emergency basis "because of the topic's public health importance."
The thrust of the article (ignoring the polite, medico-scientific jargon) is that the Bush administration, taking its eye off the ball once again, has poured millions into producing vaccines for very rare diseases that might hypothetically be used in bio-terrorism and has completely neglected the flu, which attacks us every year and kills tens of thousands.
Essentially, the NEJM article states that the contamination of the flu vaccine at one facility was predictable (and, in fact, predicted). Health officials, however, failed to heed clear warnings about the vulnerability of the nation's flu vaccine supply and, as a result, only a third of the people who need the vaccine this year will get it.
Three key quotes:
* "Glitches can crop up in the manufacturing of any pharmaceutical product, and public health officials have long been aware of the vulnerability of the vaccine supply chain, which often relies on only one or two manufacturers for critical products.
* "Regardless of how we fare with this year's influenza epidemic, it is clear that we need to substantially expand our options for dealing with the threat posed by influenza.
* "In the meantime, however, we should take sensible steps to encourage more manufacturers to make influenza vaccines and to facilitate the licensure and marketing of more such vaccines in the United States, as well as in other countries. At a time when vast resources are being funneled into the development of vaccines against agents that might hypothetically be used by terrorists, we must find ways to protect our citizens against a virus that predictably -- each and every year -- causes major morbidity and mortality."
Once again, Bush has managed to make the country less safe in the name of counter-terrorism.
The NEJM home page is www.nejm.org and a PDF of the complete article can be found at:
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/NEJMp048290