As anyone with young children knows, vaccines are a part of childhood, with typical shots (for the vast majority who participate) at 2, 4 and 6 months, 12-18 months and again at 5 years. Despite whatever controversy your own mishigas may bring to the table, this has been a public health triumph like few others (I'm old enough to remember polio). However, the whole system has been very shaky
in recent years.
The shortage caught many Americans by surprise, but it followed decades of warnings from health experts who said the nation's system for vaccine supply and distribution was growing increasingly fragile.
"We're in the middle of a crisis that could have been averted,'' said Dr. Irwin Redlener, associate dean of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and director of its national center for disaster preparedness.
In particular, public health experts have long cautioned against the country's dependence on a few vaccine makers, and yet this has become standard practice. There are now only two major manufacturers for the nation's supply of flu vaccine, and at least a half-dozen other vaccines are made by single suppliers. Britain, by contrast, has spread its order for flu vaccines among five suppliers, precisely to avoid the kind of predicament America now faces.
In recent years there have been many significant disruptions of vaccine supplies. Between November 2000 and May 2003, there were shortages of 8 of the 11 vaccines for childhood diseases in the United States, including those for tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, measles, mumps and chicken pox. There have been flu vaccine shortages or miscues for four consecutive years.
The long lines, the shortages, etc. have been predicted for some time and stand as an indictment against this Administration's public health policy (more on that coming) as well as its ability to fight bio-terror. The smallpox vaccination plan for first providers was, to be very charitable, only a modest success as the government did not address safety questions nor show good cause for the potentially risky vaccine (in a real emergency the benefit far outweighs the risk but not for a theoretical scare, and many first providers refused the vaccine).
The Times does a nice job of chronicling that this was not an overnight issue. The government did a poor job on flu preparation and there will be a political price to pay. Seniors, already riled about medicare benefits, vote.
[editor's note, by DemFromCT]
The message is encapsulated here:
How can we trust the Bush administration to protect us from a biological terrorist attack when it can't even manage to provide flu shots?