Panel Recommends Speeding Swine Flu Vaccine Access

Washington Post / Rob Stein (2009-08-24)

The federal government should expedite the availability of a vaccine against swine flu, clarify how antiviral drugs should be used to fight the pandemic and designate someone at the White House to coordinate the nation’s response to the virus, a presidential panel recommended Monday.

“Influenza brings many challenges, and agencies across the government will need to make many key decisions in the face of uncertainty about when and how the virus will play out,” Eric Lander of the Broad Institute, a co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), said in a statement released with the report. “As we did in the spring, we can hope for the best. But we must prepare for the worst.”

Panel Recommends Speeding Swine Flu Vaccine Access

Washington Post / Rob Stein (2009-08-24)

The federal government should expedite the availability of a vaccine against swine flu, clarify how antiviral drugs should be used to fight the pandemic and designate someone at the White House to coordinate the nation’s response to the virus, a presidential panel recommended Monday.

The system for tracking the spread of the new virus also should be improved and the Obama administration should take other steps to prepare for a second wave of infection expected to begin this winter, including the accelerated development of communications strategies, the panel concluded in an 86-page report.

“Influenza brings many challenges, and agencies across the government will need to make many key decisions in the face of uncertainty about when and how the virus will play out,” Eric Lander of the Broad Institute, a co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), said in a statement released with the report. “As we did in the spring, we can hope for the best. But we must prepare for the worst.”

Swine flu virus, or H1N1, emerged last spring in Mexico and quickly spread to the United States and around the world, prompting the World Health Organization to declare the first influenza pandemic in 41 years.

Although far less dangerous so far than initially feared, the virus has hit children and young adults more frequently than the normal flu virus, caused widespread disruptions and economic damage in the Southern Hemisphere, and has contributed to the deaths of more than 1,799 people in at least 168 countries, including at least 522 in the United States. A second wave of infection is expected to begin within weeks in the Northern Hemisphere as schools reopen and cooler temperatures return.

The federal government has signed contracts to spend nearly $2 billion to buy at least 159 million doses of vaccine from five companies that are rushing to produce the shots. But the first doses are not expected to be available until mid-October, when the outbreak could peak.

“This potential mismatch in timing could significantly diminish the usefulness of vaccination for mitigating the epidemic and could place many at risk for serious disease,” the report states.

The report recommends that a portion of the vaccine be made available by mid-September for those at highest risk by asking the manufacturers to start filling vials with vaccine even though the studies to determine dosages and whether a booster will be necessary have not been completed.

In a statement released with the report, the White House said all five companies “have been asked to put their initially available vaccine in vials as soon as they are ready. This will move forward, even while awaiting results of clinical studies to confirm expected dosing, to ensure the earliest possible availability of initial doses of vaccine.”