The 1976 swine flu outbreak, also known as the swine flu fiasco, or the swine flu debacle, was a strain of H1N1 influenza virus that appeared in 1976. Infections were only detected from January 19 to February 9, and were not found outside Fort Dix.[1] The outbreak is most remembered for the mass immunization that it prompted in the United States. The strain itself killed one person and hospitalized 13[citation needed]. However, side-effects from the vaccine caused 25 deaths.[2][citation needed]
On February 5, 1976, an army recruit at Fort Dix said he felt tired and weak. He died the next day and four of his fellow soldiers were later hospitalized. Two weeks after his death, health officials announced that swine flu was the cause of death and that this strain of flu appeared to be closely related to the strain involved in the 1918 flu pandemic. Alarmed public-health officials decided that action must be taken to head off another major pandemic, and they urged President Gerald Ford that every person in the U.S. be vaccinated for the disease. The vaccination program was plagued by delays and public relations problems, but about 24% of the population had been vaccinated by the time the program was canceled. Only one person, the Fort Dix army recruit, died from the flu.[2][3]
There were reports of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a paralyzing neuromuscular disorder, affecting some people who had received swine flu immunizations. One of the causes of this syndrome could be a rare side-effect of modern influenza vaccines, with an incidence of about one case per million vaccinations.[4] As a result, Di Justo writes that "the public refused to trust a government-operated health program that killed old people and crippled young people." In total, less than 33 percent of the population had been immunized by the end of 1976. The National Influenza Immunization Program was effectively halted on December 16.
David Sencer had to make a call. He called a potential pandemic. In this he was correct.
Because politicians acted on his correct call, they were embarrassed, and he was fired. Jerry Ford didn't own it - as he would of if he were a real man. David Sencer owned it all, when all he did was to act on the best available information under conditions of uncertainty.
As you watch the CDC paralyzed, unable to even publish a case fatality rate 24 weeks after A/California/4/2009 was discovered, issuing liberal guidance on day care and school policies because they are afraid of feminist politicians, and issuing restrictive guidance on hospitals because they aren't afraid of them, remember that name. Remember what happens when politicians of both parties relentlessly corrupt a once-excellent agency, year after year, decade after decade.
Remember what happens when the only way you can get into trouble is to make a decision. Someday, the threat will be real - and the legacy of David Sencer's dismissal will get a lot of people killed.