Chattanooga Pulse

This past Friday, President Obama declared the current outbreak of the H1N1 Swine Flu to be a “national emergency”.  This gives his health chief the power to let hospitals move emergency rooms offsite to speed treatment and protect noninfected patients.  So far, according to officials with Atlanta’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 1,000 people in the United States, including almost 100 children, have died from H1N1 flu virus, and 46 states have widespread flu activity.

State Health Commissioner Susan Cooper welcomed the declaration, calling the announcement a proactive step in preparing for a potential increase in illness and facility demands related to H1N1 flu. “This virus is spreading rapidly, and there is the potential for healthcare systems to become overburdened,” she added.
Compounding the problems has been a very slow distribution of the vaccine, available in both nasal and injectable form. Dr. Valerie Boaz with the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department said the appointments for their recent shipment of 1,300 doses of the injectable vaccine were booked almost as soon as it was announced.  However, she said there are still plenty of the FluMist vaccine doses available.

So far, only 11 million doses have gone out to health departments, doctors’ offices and other providers, less than ten percent of the original promise of 120 million doses that were supposed to be distributed by mid-October. The government now hopes to have about 50 million doses of swine flu vaccine out by mid-November and 150 million in December. The flu virus has to be grown in chicken eggs, and the yield hasn’t been as high as was initially hoped.

Another twist to the flu story has been a backlash among a sizeable percentage of parents who are unwilling to get their children inoculated.  A recent poll by ABC News and the Washington Post showed that nearly 40 percent of parents were afraid of potential side effects and had decided not to get their children vaccinated. Adding to concerns are several national talk-show hosts who have suggested that the H1N1 flu vaccine may be unsafe and questioned the Obama administration’s recommendation that Americans get vaccinated. Rush Limbaugh even went as far as to assert that “you’ll be healthier” if you don’t believe what the government says.

This type of fear-mongering upsets CDC chief Thomas Frieden, who stated very clearly that the vaccine is safe and was not “rushed” into production. “This flu vaccine is made as flu vaccine is made each year, by the same companies, in the same production facilities, with the same procedures, with the same safety safeguards,” he said. “That enables us to have a high degree of confidence in the safety of the vaccine.”

The simple fact is that while the vaccine has been delayed (someone in government almost literally counted the chicken eggs before they were laid), every reliable scientific report shows that the vaccine is safe and effective.  The only question is: Will enough people get the vaccine in time to keep the pandemic from causing more deaths than would otherwise have been prevented?