Why did Chiron Flu Crisis Affect USA more than England?

Why did the British never allow themselves to become dependent on just two flu major flu vaccine suppliers like the Americans did? According to health experts, they did this in case the current Chiron flu vaccine crisis happened – to make sure the nation’s people were not left in a vulnerable position.

Last August UK officials, with the same information the US officials had, decided something had to be done in case the Chiron supplies, 14% of UK supplies, went belly up. The US officials decided to believe Chiron and gamble 48% of their supplies on an assurance that everything would turn out fine despite some worrying set backs.

When October 5th arrived, the British authorities pulled the plug on the Chiron, Liverpool, supplies. US authorities were caught out – nothing had been done in advance, the country had allowed itself to get into this situation.

Even without this crisis, the UK authorities have always had a situation where they can fall back on six or seven suppliers that have been pre-approved by UK authorities. The US, on the other hand, only has two – one of which has let them down. Had the US had more pre-approved suppliers, had the US started to do something about this problem last August when alarm bells were ringing, had the US……? This is what many Americans are now starting to ask.

The American Health Dept saw no reason last August to do anything, says their spokesman Tony Jewell. Americans hear him and ask, so why did the British have a reason, you both worked on the same information, didn’t you?

Well so much for my hope of obtaining a flu shot this year. This is so unacceptable. There are only so many times when an administration can claim that black is white before even the most die-hard partisans have to call them on it. To fail to diversify the flu vaccine sources (which is just plain common sense) and then to cover up the screw-up by claiming that they were blind to any evidence that there was a need to diversify, is yet another example of failure for this administration to stand for the American people or to own up to their mistakes. Luckily we got Max vaccinated before this all came about. Our goal was to try to protect our newborn son Dylan from getting in contact with the flu. Now Yingwen and I are going to have to just hope we don’t get it.