As many individuals and families are dealing with the shortage of H1N1 vaccine’s, this week I searched online and found several pharmacies listed as “having vaccines” according to the CDC website. After taking a trip with my family to the listed pharmacies, I was told there was no vaccine, and they did not know when they would see their first dose. In fact, the CDC website says there are 570,000 doses of H1N1 vaccine ordered for Maryland and 0 delivered.
According to the New York Post, “the shortage of swine-flu vaccine results not from drug- company greed or outsize demand but almost entirely from the government's decision to pander to unfounded and unscientific fear.” In fact, vaccine developers such as Novartis and Sanofi-Pasteur isolated the H1N1 strain and identified antibodies for production in record time.
The government created the shortage problem by trying to produce single-dose syringes, “a demand that has set back production considerably, because multidose vials are far easier to make.”
Those who maintain that single doses were necessary, cite the use of a preservative called thimerasol, which is used to provide multiple doses of the vaccine. The article called such fear “utterly groundless and repeatedly debunked that thimerasol can cause autism and other neurological disorders in infants and other young children.”
As a result, the government “yielded to pressure from antivaccine fringe groups,” leaving millions of children and Americans without access to vaccines for the swine flu. Such a concession by the government was misguided because the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control in 1999 “both stated there was no scientific evidence of side effects,” even though they still removed thimerasol.
The impact of such a scare on vaccine production from antivaccine activists is no old news, especially for the private sector. For example in the '80s, antivaccine activists “claimed that DTP (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus) vaccine caused brain damage; the court actions scared off investment in production facilities using the new recombinant technologies.”
Consequently, investments in vaccinations decreased sharply after this case, which is apparent today as most people are seeing signs posted outside local drugstores and clinics across the country: "Out of H1N1 Vaccine."
Ultimately, when dealing with issues of public health and trying to avert potential crisis, the government has recently “compromised the safety of many.” While they have certainly handled communicating with the public about what to do and where to go, there needs to be more coordination of policy. The government must “align policy with established scientific opinion and the public's best interests” in order to keep Americans healthy and safe. Allowing private industry to carry out such research and science at this time is in everyone’s best interest.