House Dems Ask For Flu Help From President
WASHINGTON, Oct. 14- U.S. Rep. William Delahunt joined 70 House Democrats this week in drafting a letter to President Bush calling for immediate action to assure only high-priority citizens receive vaccinations this season and that similar shortages are prevented in the future.
“This is an effort to exert some political pressure to restore urgency to a public health emergency,” Delahunt spokesman Steve Schwadron said. “It’s not getting the attention it needs.”
The letter cited the vaccine shortage in 2000-2001 as evidence of a missed opportunity by the federal government to more closely monitor the procurement and distribution of vaccines to prevent another crisis, rather than scrambling to react.
“The eve of an imminent flu crisis is not quite the time to debate the merits of federalism in public health,” the legislators wrote.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it learned last week that Chiron Corp., one of two companies that provide the United States with injectible influenza vaccine, had its manufacturing plant in Liverpool, England, closed by British regulators – a decision that cost the United States 46 million of the 100 million vaccine doses it had ordered.
On Tuesday, the CDC presented a plan to reallocate a portion of the 55 million doses provided by Aventis Pasteur and reminded the public how important it was that people in the high-risk category receive flu shots this season.
But Aventis has already shipped more than 32 million doses, including more than 80,000 to Massachusetts. Of the remaining 22.4 million unshipped doses, 14.2 million have been earmarked for high-risk patients and states that have not yet received any vaccine. According to the CDC, at least 4 million doses will be stockpiled, leaving only 4 million doses to cover the Chiron shortages.
“You can run the numbers,” Schwadron said. “Government has certain fundamental functions, and one of them is doing everything known to mankind to protect personal health.”
Delahunt’s district includes Cape Cod and the islands, where the median age is among the highest in the state. There has been widespread concern among locals regarding the availability of flu vaccine.
While the letter to the president provides few specific suggestions for assuring that available vaccinations make it to those who need them most, Schwadron suggested that the president use his authority to collect doses that have been shipped by Aventis but not yet administered to citizens. Then, he said, the government could assure that the vaccines are redistributed most effectively.
“If they were willing to address this, it could happen,” Schwadron said. “All it would take would be a wink and the relevant agencies would scramble to work.”
As of yesterday afternoon, White House spokesman Ken Lisaius had not yet heard about the letter, but said that the federal government is taking steps to address the vaccine shortage.
Lisaius said that medical vaccinations have been a priority for President Bush, citing $100 million requests for the Department of Health and Human Services in each of the last two budgets to provide year-round vaccinations and focus on more efficient vaccination technologies. Congress allocated only $50 million in the 2004 budget.
“It’s imperative that we invest in the more efficient, reliable and modern methods for producing flu vaccines,” Lisaius said.
Over the last four years, the number of companies providing flu vaccines to the United States has declined from four to two. CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding said that strict regulations and low revenue streams have dissuaded companies from entering the vaccine market.
While Schwadron acknowledged that no Republicans signed the letter, he cautioned against viewing this in a political light, saying that Republicans are wary of any resistance toward the president’s policies in the weeks before the election.
Lisaius reiterated that Congress had the ability to better fund the president’s vaccination plan and that it did not allocate the money.
“Rather than playing partisan politics with a public health issue, this administration remains focused on taking immediate steps to address the matter,” he said.
Patrick O’Reilly, program director at MassPRO, a nonprofit organization that monitors the health care received by Medicare patients, called the CDC recommendations Tuesday an “excellent” effort but said the federal government has a responsibility to be more involved both in the medical marketplace and in ensuring better public health.
Because it is impossible to determine how many doses will be necessary for each flu season, O’Reilly said, one way to ease corporate hesitancy to join the vaccine industry would be to subsidize companies for doses that are unused.
Regardless, O’Reilly said, this year’s shortage must serve as a “warning shot.”
“I hope the congressmen see this as an opportunity and don’t turn away from it once flu season is over and it’s not in the headlines anymore but continue to address this issue,” he said. “As far as I know, flu seasons come every year.”
