Fox News network's The Big Story with John Gibson interviewed ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan on October 12, 2004:
HEATHER NAUERT, FOX NEWS: It looks like about as many as 35 million people are unlikely to get a flu shot this season. The government is now rationing the vaccine, trying to get shots to those who are considered to be most vulnerable: those are children and the elderly primarily.
Joining me now to talk about this shortage is Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, President and Founder of the American Council on Science and Health.
That's the big question, Dr. Whelan: are we facing a flu crisis this year?
DR. ELIZABETH WHELAN, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN COUNCIL ON SCIENCE AND HEALTH: Absolutely we are. It was just one week ago today that we got this absolutely stunning news that half of our flu supply would not materialize.
We had hoped to have 100 million shots of the flu vaccine available, now we're down to about 50 million. Let me tell you, that even having 100 million in hand is not covering the entire at-risk population, which is over 185 million.
NAUERT: OK. So we don't get people bogged down in too many numbers, I'm wondering how we got ourselves in this position in the first place, where we're relying primarily on two sources to get the flu vaccine: a British company and Aventis.
WHELAN: You're absolutely correct. We put our eggs in these two baskets, and one of them let us down. How did it happen? It's very complex. Some of it is due to the American consumer not being faithful to getting flu shots.
They're expensive to make, they're tedious to make. Every year we need a new supply. And you know what? There were very few incentives for companies to get in the business and many disincentives, including very large liability threats, people suing vaccine manufacturers if they suffered some side effects.
NAUERT: Have there been any lawsuits of companies that do make the flu vaccine that drove them out of the business?
WHELAN: Oh, absolutely, over the years, yes. That, plus the fact that almost every year the manufacturers end up having to throw out maybe 10 million or more of the vaccines that they made because people just don't get them.
Last year was different. We used about 88 million of them.
NAUERT: And they do create a new vaccine every single year because the flu strain is different every year, so we should mention that. Is there any way that the rest of us -- people working every day, moms, dads, whatever, people who are not in that vulnerable group -- is there any way that we can get it this year?
WHELAN: There's really no way you're going to be able to get it. The government is now shipping the vaccine toward the high-risk groups. You're talking about the elderly, as you said, very young children. Those of us who are not in the high-risk category, we're just going to have to get through it.
Let me say two things here. Number one, the good news, I think if we can get all of the -- not all, but a substantial number of the high-risk people vaccinated, we can keep the death rate to 30,000 or 40,000, which it was last year, which is pretty incredible.
I have to say, though, we have to be prepared for a dramatic increase in sickness and morbidity among this vast number of people, those of us who are not going to be vaccinated. Do what you can to protect yourself, wash your hands; don't bring your hand to your face --
NAUERT: Don't touch your eyes. By morbidity, though, you don't mean that more people are necessarily going to die, you just mean more people are going to get sick.
WHELAN: Morbidity as opposed to mortality; more and more people are going to be sick. Last year we had 200,000 people go into the hospital because of influenza, and that was when we had almost 90 million people vaccinated.
This time, we're going to have less than 50 million probably vaccinated, so we're going to see much more sickness.
NAUERT: I have one quick question for you. The company in Britain, last year, was found that there was some contamination in some of the vaccination that they had put together. They were able to essentially clean that out so it wasn't a problem last year.
Is it possible that the vaccination can be cleaned out this year, like it was last year?
WHELAN: No, apparently, according to the FDA acting commissioner, they've inspected and they are probably not going to be able to salvage. There is some talk...
NAUERT: OK. Dr. Whelan, we're going to have to leave it there. Thanks a lot for joining us, appreciate it.
WHELAN: Thank you very much for the opportunity.
