Swine Flu Vaccine Is Expensive But Necessary

Daily Observer

June 28, 1976

Whether or not it was an election ploy as has been intimated by various sources, President Ford made a proper judgment in authorizing $135 mission for the preparation of a vaccine against the swine influenza virus.

It may come in handy. That foreign governments have not made the vaccine and are not nervous about the outbreak of the swine influenza epidemic should not adversely influence the decision of the United States government to proceed full steam.

When the outbreak comes, the foreign governments will be glad to borrow from our available stockpiles.

Swine influenza is dangerous, and strikes with murderous rapidity, taking a large toll amongst the young.

Whether or not the government should proceed to vaccinate the population at large as soon as the vaccine is produced is another question.

It would be wise to confirm that an epidemic is in the making before taking so drastic a step. There are two reasons for this. First, to vaccinate 200 million people will result in needless deaths, if there is no epidemic. Secondly, the vaccination has a limited protection span. Booster shots would be required if the epidemic were to strike, say six months after the vaccination program had begun.

Flu epidemics occur in waves, and it is not necessarily true that the winter epidemic will be the worst. The second and third waves seem to increase the virulence of the virus, and might necessitate vaccination the year round.

Good timing could break the back of a pandemic; bad timing might use up valuable supplied that would be better utilized at a more propitious moment.

Furthermore, history suggests that it is not the elderly who will require the vaccine as much as the young. During the pandemic of 1918, flu swept through the army camps wreaking more havoc than the war itself. Antibodies against swine influenza can still be found in the blood of those who were alive in 1918.

Those who might bemoan the expenditure of 135 million on a vaccine waiting in vain for an epidemic must remember that larger sums have been expended for less worthy causes.

However heroic our efforts, however generous the public in devoting its tax monies to this venture in preventive medicine, the flu virus is deceptive. Virus recombinations against which we have no defenses are unpredictable, and the possibility exists that an odd variant will appear suddenly that is just as lethal as swine influenza, but which is entirely different, rendering the vaccine useless.

But there are warhead silos in the Midwest that apparently are outmoded, mothball fleets that can’t sail against an enemy, and warplanes that don’t fly very well. A vaccine that is destined to be useless will be a nice change of pace. Whatever its fate, President Ford has established a worthwhile precedent in public health.