Flu Shots: The Big Scramble

At least 20 u.s. children have died from the flu so far this year, and with 24 states reporting large outbreaks, worried parents have flocked to clinics to get their kids inoculated. The upshot: vaccine supplies are nearly tapped out six weeks before the flu season typically hits its peak. "We're doing the best we can to try to get the vaccine to the people who need it most," says Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc). The shortage is occurring because vaccine producers, who on average have made an excess of 10 million doses each year over the past five years, cut back on stocks this time around. More cannot be made on demand because the vaccine takes eight months to produce.

So can anything be done? Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota has asked the cdc to create a national flu-vaccine stockpile. But the suggestion may be better politics than policy. Health officials note that any stockpile would just get dumped. Flu vaccines have a short shelf life and are prepared fresh each year against the strain expected to predominate that season. Frank Sloan, a health-economics professor at Duke University, notes that vaccines in general account for only a penny of every dollar raked in by drug companies, and suggests a more workable solution: subsidizing vaccine production. But at a time of exploding deficits, that may be a tough sell.