Bird flu is the rage. What about ordinary flu? Last year there weren't enough doses of the flu vaccine in the US. Chiron blew it. This year Chiron appear to have different production problems. Still not enough vaccine. But why is it that every year there's an issue?

Surely, there's a known problem with a deadly virus that strikes the elderly and chronically sick mainly, but still hits the rest of the population severely. Surely it would make sense to take a macro approach and suggest, as a public health issue, that everyone over a certain age has a vaccine. And surely that would pay for itself in lower mortality rates, less absenteeism and higher productivity across the US economy?

If nothing else, and if Government see no role for themselves in leading this issue, smart organizations (Businesses, colleges, hospitals, etc) should be getting everyone vaccinated. Flu is a high probability, high impact, predictable winter event. Vaccination is just a smart thing to do.

This entry was posted on October 18, 2005 at 11:12 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Main Page by Richard McKinnon No Comments Yet