Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Grassley seeks full accounting of H1N1 purchase by government/ Senate website

Press Release from Senator Grassley, asking many previously unasked questions about the vaccine supply; its cost; safety studies; efficacy data; and government oversight, given the PREPA liability shield:
WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley has asked the Secretary of Health and Human Services for additional information about the government’s supply of the H1N1 vaccine, based on information provided by the Secretary in an earlier response to Grassley and policies of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding distribution.
Senator Grassley’s new questions can be accessed here.  His earlier letter on swine flu vaccine to Secretary Sibelius is found here.  Secretary Sibelius' reply to his earlier questions is here.

Meantime, the BBC reported from Northern Ireland that one prominent physician (Dr. Brian Dunn, chair of the GP Committee of the British Medical Association) said, "Swine flu bill 'hard to justify.'"
The death rate from those suffering from the virus across the UK was low, at 0.026%. In addition, hundreds of thousands of people are thought to have been infected but not displayed any symptoms.
The cost to the Department of Health is £44m. "I would not like to be accounting for that," Dr Dunn said.  "At a time when money is scarce and is likely to get scarcer; at a time when waiting lists are going up; at a time when we are talking about cuts in front-line services, I think it is very hard to justify that." 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Vaccines are not unlike any government mass purchase.

The vaccine makers "make sure" the government orders too much. The political "cover story" is panic.

The vaccine makers pay good money to public relations firms to stoke the panic.