The incompetence of the Administration, and the inability to take responsibility for mistakes, is shocking. The costs of flu are enormous, both in terms of economic impact of sick workers (and sick children), and in the human toll on those who suffer from an illness that might have been preventable.
Here is the USA Today story, demonstrating yet again that the Brits and the Americans were warned of problems, and the Brits took action to build alternative supplies, while the American government sat idly.
FDA red-flagged flu vaccine factory
By Anita Manning, USA TODAY
U.S. health regulators say they found quality-control problems at a flu vaccine factory in Liverpool, England, in June 2003 but did not begin a full inspection of the plant again until Sunday, five days after British authorities yanked the company's license because of tainted vaccine...
Food and Drug Administration officials Sunday defended their oversight of the plant, saying that inspections of vaccine plants are normally done every two years, and U.S. officials were not notified until Aug. 25 by vaccine maker Chiron Corp. of more serious problems of bacterial contamination in 6 million to 8 million doses of flu vaccine.
FDA official Karen Midthun said that in June 2003, inspectors found some batches of flu vaccine that had contained bacteria and had been reprocessed...
"The British government immediately announced that it had already purchased a backup supply of vaccine," after notification in August of problems, said U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.. But in the USA, "public health officials appear to have been taken completely by surprise."