It becomes clear that the Bush Administration was told about the problems with the British flu vaccine plant, but failed to protect us.
Is this a pattern? One recalls an August 6, 2001 President's Daily Briefing titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US."
Here's the Washington Post story, making plain that the British and American authorities were given advance warning--and the Brits made plans to find alternative sources!
Britain: U.S. Told Of Vaccine Shortage
Flu Shot Records Contradict FDA
By Glenn Frankel and Glenda Cooper
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, October 9, 2004; Page A01
LONDON, Oct. 8 -- British health officials said Friday that their American counterparts were informed in mid-September that problems at a drug manufacturing plant in northwest England could disrupt influenza vaccine supplies to the United States.
Records at Britain's Department of Health show that the plant's owner, Chiron Corp., warned officials of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the British Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency on Sept. 13 that potential contamination problems remained unresolved at the plant, according to Alison Langley, a senior spokeswoman at the department.
The British account is at odds with statements by U.S. health officials that they were caught by surprise by the British regulatory agency's decision this week to suspend vaccine manufacturing for three months at the Liverpool plant. It had been expected to provide 48 million doses of flu vaccine to the United States, about half of the U.S. supply this year.
Unlike the United States, health officials in Britain responded to the warning by making "plans by contacting other manufacturers," Langley said.