“The Obama administration warned Americans on Thursday to be ready for an aggressive return of the swine flu virus in the fall, announcing plans to begin vaccinations in October and offering states and hospitals money to help them prepare.”
(Here’s the NY Times article quoted above. And here’s the flu preparedness summit held today by major players in the U.S. government, with archived video footage. Also: guidance for nurses, provided to AJN by the CDC in late April. We’ll be checking in with them soon for an update.)
I am seeing a lot of conspiracy theories posted on internet sites about a plot to either kill people off with a faulty vaccine or with a bioengineered pandemic virus.
The past eight years of problems with manufacture and distribution of flu vaccine has eroded confidence and disrupted what had been a pretty reliable routine of yearly flu shots for the elderly.
Since we fortunately have not had a serious infectious disease outbreak like polio in the US for over a generation there are a lot of people who conclude that the risk of a vaccine outweighs the benefits.
We need education, but also transparency and accountability.