Posted on 05/03/2010 3:52:38 PM PDT by george76
Grassley says he is worried about wasting tax dollars.
The United States still has 71 million doses of H1N1 swine flu vaccine that have not been used, but it is not yet time to throw them out, the federal government said on Monday.
States and other providers should hang on to the vaccine and continue to offer them to people until drug companies can start distributing seasonal vaccine for the coming influenza season in the autumn, said Health and Human Services Department spokesman Bill Hall.
Senator Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance committee, released a letter on Monday that he sent to HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius asking her how much vaccine was left over and when it would expire.
H1N1 swine flu is still technically causing a pandemic and health officials say anyone who has not been vaccinated should still try, in case it causes a third wave of serious disease.
Sebelius said last month that 162 million doses were produced and distributed, but only 90 million actually got into people's arms or noses.
"Depending on the vaccine manufacturer, the shelf life of the H1N1 vaccines range from 18 weeks to 18 months, with some due to expire on June 30, 2010," Grassley wrote in his letter to Sebelius.
"I understand that it is not uncommon for some seasonal flu vaccines to be discarded each year, but the H1N1 vaccines were paid for with taxpayer dollars," he added, asking: "How many doses of vaccine are due to expire on June 30, 2010?"
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.reuters.com ...
The x axis of that graph is labeled weeks but skips around. It makes it hard to read and draw a conclusion about the data presented.
There is nothing out of order in the chart. It begins with week 35 of 2009 and continues through April 24, 2010. The numbers on the axis are incremented by twos.
The one they reseved for myself and my wife were 2 of them!
Working with the not so savory people she usually got one and almost always caught the flu.
This year she skipped the flu shots and excaped without getting the flu or a cold!
“It occurs to me that the vaccine for H1N1 will only work on that strain, so hanging on to them doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
Give the shots to all the illegals for free and maybe they will get the flu!!!!
Oh. I’m an idiot sorry. Gotta wonder who made $ on the hype from this bug.
It would appear that a good hype...pays bucks. We need to start some old fashioned disease craze...like Ringworm....and then dream up a $44 shot to fix it. Then go on CNN and MSNBC to chat with experts on Ringworm.
Maybe he can get all of ours, so he never, ever gets swine flu the rest of his life. :)
It would help to get our pals in the government to order massive purchases. All we’d have to do is cut them in via some stock options and a little campaign $.
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