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Yesterday a number of Federal Health officials, along with representatives from several vaccine companies, were on the hot seat when they appeared before House and Senate committees to explain shortfalls in the pandemic vaccine response to the H1N1 virus.
Lisa Schnirring and Robert Roos of CIDRAP news monitored these hearings, and both authored reports last night. Both are detailed, well written, and very much worth reading in their entirety.
House committees probe pandemic vaccine decisions
Lisa Schnirring
Staff Writer
Nov 18, 2009 (CIDRAP News) – Federal officials, along with representatives from four vaccine companies, appeared before two US House of Representatives committees today to answer questions about why the nation hasn't stretched scarce pandemic vaccine supply with adjuvants and if a more federally directed distribution system might help vaccine get to more high-risk patients.
Members of the House subcommittees on health and oversight and investigations also grilled health officials and company executives about reasons for vaccine delays and when they first became aware that shipments in October would fall dramatically below summer projections.
They also expressed concerns that the nation will face similar vaccine shortfalls if another emergency strikes unless new technologies such as cell- or DNA-based production systems come online.
In their opening statements, several legislators said they've fielded calls from frustrated constituents who have had a hard time finding the vaccine for themselves or their children. Rep Greg Walden, R-Ore., said, "I don't think finger-pointing exercises are helpful, but there have been some repercussions. Today I hope we can get some concrete answers."
Lawmakers fault H1N1 vaccination strategy
Robert Roos
Nov 18, 2009 (CIDRAP News) – Leaders of the US Senate Homeland Security Committee sharply critiqued the federal government's H1N1 vaccination strategy yesterday, saying health officials should have recommended targeting only the highest-risk groups as soon as the vaccine delays came to light.
But health officials responded that state and local public health agencies needed flexibility to allocate vaccine supplies as they saw fit. And state and local immunization experts contacted by CIDRAP News today agreed, saying flexibility is necessary given the complexity of matching supplies of different vaccine formulations to the targeted groups.
They also said the root of the public unhappiness over the vaccine shortage lies in overoptimistic expectations created early on by senior federal officials.
At the Senate committee hearing yesterday, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., the chairman, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Me., ranking Republican, argued that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) should have called for an exclusive targeting of the most vulnerable groups as soon as it became clear that vaccine deliveries would not come in predicted amounts on the expected schedule.
