# 4211
From Donald G. McNeil of the New York Times, a Post Mortem of sorts (offered by a number of experts) . . . if not of the pandemic, at least of the Federal response to the pandemic through the end of 2009.
Admittedly, nature gave us a bit of a break, serving up a pandemic virus far less virulent than it could have been. Even so, novel H1N1 has caused its share of misery, death, and disruption and continues to lay challenges before the medical community.
While it is exceedingly popular to lob nothing but criticisms at the Federal government, a fair assessment would have to grant that they managed to do a lot of things right.
The CDC steered a conservative and prudent course, and it would be hard to fault Dr. Anne Schuchat’s well measured press conferences. She has been truly remarkable under fire, expressing concern when it was warranted, but not alarm.
A better spokesperson during a crisis would be hard to envision.
The CDC also quickly made adjustments to their guidance as more information became available. They avoided the `trap’ of being afraid to make mid-course corrections, or of appearing indecisive.
For any Federal agency to be `light on their feet’ is unusual. For the CDC to pull that off while events were moving swiftly was truly remarkable.
Of course, not everything went as planned, and they got lucky, in that the virus wasn’t worse than it was.
The biggest federal problem was a self-inflicted wound; The over-promising of vaccine supplies which began in the summer, and continued into the fall.
As Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of CIDRAP points out in this article, had they promised vaccine in December, and managed to deliver some in October, they’d be looked upon as heroes.
I remain mystified over how (or even why) officials figured on having 140 million doses of vaccine available by mid-October, when as early as May 1st, we were seeing reports of poor antigen yields from the seed vaccine.
Over the summer I wrote extensively about vaccine supply issues, including Vaccine Yields Continue To Disappoint and Murphy's Laws And Vaccine Production.
Despite this gaffe, the bigger issue was the delivery of a safe and effective vaccine in record time. Something they managed to do in just five months.
Despite the warnings of many, with millions of shots dispensed: we’ve very little reason to doubt its safety.
A victory for the HHS, and Dr. Bruce Gellin, Director of the National Vaccine Program Office.
Here then is Don McNeil’s roundup of opinions, voiced by public health experts from around the nation, on how the Federal Government has handled the first pandemic in 40 years.
This article is well worth reading in its entirety.
U.S. Reaction to Swine Flu: Apt and Lucky
Published: January 1, 2010
Although it is too early to write the obituary for swine flu, medical experts, already assessing how the first pandemic in 40 years has been handled, have found that while luck played a part, a series of rapid but conservative decisions by federal officials worked out better than many had dared hope.
The outbreak highlighted many national weaknesses: old, slow vaccine technology; too much reliance on foreign vaccine factories; some major hospitals pushed to their limits by a relatively mild epidemic.
But even given those drawbacks, “we did a lot of things right,” concluded Dr. Andrew T. Pavia, chairman of the pandemic flu task force of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
Federal officials deserve “at least a B-plus,” said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University’s medical school.
Even Dr. Peter Palese, a leading virologist at Mount Sinai Medical School, who can be a harsh critic of public policies he disagrees with, called the government’s overall response “excellent.”
