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View Full Version : US government ready to spend billions on flu vaccine




disorderlyvision
07-10-2009, 09:58 AM
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/07/10/us_ready_to_spend_billions_on_flu_vaccine/


WASHINGTON - The Obama administration said yesterday that it has billions of dollars available to help pay for a national H1N1 flu vaccine program that could be ready starting in mid-October.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made the announcement at an all-day summit on the outbreak of what is more commonly known as swine flu. One purpose of the gathering, officials have said, is to help restore a sense of urgency to the worldwide response to the epidemic.

Sebelius said the government has “already appropriated about a billion dollars to buy the bulk ingredients’’ and has $7.5 billion more available in emergency preparedness funds. Sebelius said no final decision has been made on vaccination. The summit of federal and state health officials opened with a satellite appearance by President Obama, who was beamed into the meeting room at the National Institutes of Health from L’Aquila, Italy, where he is attending the Group of Eight summit.

“Although we were fortunate not to see a more serious situation in the spring when we first got news of this outbreak . . . the potential for a significant outbreak in the fall is looming,’’ Obama said. “We want to make sure that we are not promoting panic, but we are promoting vigilance, and preparation.’’

Public and governmental awareness of the flu pandemic spiked this spring with fears the new strain could resist treatment and ravage the population. That attention has faded as it became clear that most cases were mild.

But the summit is occurring amid reports that infection rates have not subsided this summer as some specialists had anticipated, forcing countries such as Britain to shift their response. The World Health Organization has said 2 billion people could eventually be infected worldwide.

Some health officials have expressed concern the country may not be ready to do battle if a more virulent form of the virus emerges this fall. Last spring, federal officials said some local communities were far more prepared than others to deal with a severe outbreak.

State and local officials say they expect the Obama administration to share in far more detail a national US strategy to combat the pandemic

sevin
07-10-2009, 10:01 AM
The question I keep wondering is, "Will they make it mandatory?" If people choose to get a vaccine, fine, that's their risk, but if they force it on us...well, then we're just like cattle that are pushed through the chutes and branded.