Under Murdoch, the WSJ has become filled with ideological bile........now here's the truth:
"But the October shortfall was not the first. Indeed, since the outbreak of the H1N1 swine flu occurred in April, federal projections have been consistently and wildly overoptimistic and have had to be ratcheted down several times. As recently as late July, the government was predicting having 160 million doses by this month.
The reasons for the receding estimates start with the fact that the H1N1 virus, known as swine flu, is not growing as fast as expected in the eggs used to produce vaccine. Moreover, some manufacturers did not even know how little they were producing until a vaccine potency test became available around August, federal officials say.
Some companies hit bottlenecks in putting the vaccine into vials and syringes. And an Australian company, CSL Ltd., satisfied its own country’s needs first. Federal officials argue, and some outside experts agree, that the government did a good job in rapidly marshaling suppliers of vaccine for the flu pandemic. The first doses were administered early this month, faster than in any other countries except China and Australia. And inoculations started only about five months after the swine flu outbreak started in Mexico, which is quicker than it takes to get a seasonal flu vaccine ready.
nytimes.com |
