This is not an anti-vaccine post. This is a “let’s not rush this and cause more harm than good” post.
First, the 1976 disaster:
A Shot in the Dark: Swine Flu's Vaccine Lessons
Twenty-six years ago, the United States government got word that a deadly virus nobody had seen for years -- and which experts thought was gone forever -- was possibly circulating again.
There wasn't any proof it was back, just a few worrisome hints. However, the microbe had killed millions of people earlier in the century, so even a small amount of evidence had to be taken seriously. So, at great effort and expense, the government launched a plan to vaccinate the American population against the virus.
...
Albert Sabin, the father of the oral polio vaccine and a high-profile advocate, broke with the party line and called for stockpiling, but not immediate use, of the vaccine.
Three elderly people in Pittsburgh died on the same day within hours of getting swine flu shots. It was a chance event, but just the sort of guilt by association that arises whenever a public health intervention is done on a mass scale.
What killed the program, though, was the observation in early December that people given the swine flu vaccine had an increased risk of developing Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare, usually reversible but occasionally fatal form of paralysis. Research showed that while the actual risk for Guillain-Barre was only about 1 in 1,000 among people who had received the vaccine, that was about seven times higher than for people who didn't get the shot.
On Dec. 16, the swine flu vaccine campaign was halted. About 45 million people had been immunized. The federal government eventually paid out $90 million in damages to people who developed Guillain-Barre. The total bill for the program was more than $400 million.
...
http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/Bioter/shotinthedark.htmlNext, it looks like American vaccine makers are planning production:
Glaxo, Roche Meet Swine-Flu Drug Needs; Vaccine Is Months Away
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Roche Holding AG stepped up production of antiviral drugs as concern spread that a swine-flu pandemic may develop, and vaccines to protect against the current strain remained months away.
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“The vaccine won’t be available for quite some time, at least four months, and then it won’t be in huge numbers,” said Othmar Engelhardt, a virologist at the U.K.’s National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, in Potters Bar, England, north of London.
Sanofi-Aventis SA’s vaccine unit is “ready to work” with world health authorities if they ask, said Pascal Barollier, a spokesman for the Paris-based drugmaker. Developing a swine-flu vaccine would take about four months, he said.
Baxter International Inc., which makes both seasonal and pandemic vaccines, has requested samples of the swine virus to do laboratory testing and potentially make shots, said Christopher Bona, a spokesman for the Deerfield, Illinois-based company. Baxter’s Vero-cell technology can produce flu vaccine in about half the time required by traditional egg-based manufacturing, which takes about 24 weeks, Bona said in a telephone interview.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=ayjJIr6dL9CA&refer=ukThe Brits are gearing up:
The quest for a swine flu vaccine
Vials containing samples of the swine flu virus are making their way from the US to a government laboratory north of London. The race for a vaccine is on.
It is a global endeavour and will bring the public and the private together, but it could still take several months before a safe and effective jab is available.
Yet amid all this activity, the answer could in fact be right under our noses.
Tests are being carried out to establish whether the current seasonal flu vaccine could provide cross protection against what we are seeing at the moment, as there are similarities between the H1N1 human flu viruses and the new H1N1 swine flu.
If that were the case - and it's certainly not impossible - we would in the words of one virologist be "home and dry".
...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8024240.stmAnd the Dutch vaccine maker Solvay is offering it’s new non-egg method – if needed:
Swine flu: vaccine could take months
Even though virologists have isolated the virus, a vaccine against swine flu or Mexican flu won't be available for several months. However, Dutch influenza vaccine manufacturer Solvay Biologicals is ready to start producing the vaccine as soon as they have the formula.
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In 2001, Solvay developed a new method of growing viruses that is much quicker than the traditional method using chicken eggs. Mr Kok explains:
"So far we used the traditional technology making use of chicken eggs. But recently we are working on an alternative technology which makes us independent of the supply of eggs, the so-called cell culture technology. So instead of eggs we use cells to grow the viruses. We are one of the first in the world to have a facility like that and if the H1N1 virus has really become a threat and we have to produce vaccine we will use at first instance the cell culture facility which is based in the Netherlands."
According to Mr Kok, production won't start until the WHO increases the alert to level six, which indicates that a global pandemic has started. That might seem like a slow response but it can't happen any other way.
If all efforts go towards producing a new vaccine, then production on the ordinary flu vaccine will come to a halt. If a pandemic doesn't break out, millions of people will miss their ordinary flu jab and thousands of people will die....
http://www.radionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/090429-flu-vaccine-mc
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