Paul Starr, writing for the November issue of The American Prospect (an issue which also carries the distinction of my first appearance on the masthead), has a hell of an editorial on flu pandemics:
in recent years, the United States allowed itself to become totally dependent on foreign manufacture of flu vaccine -- sources that would be grossly inadequate, in both quantity and speed of production, in the event of a pandemic. For national defense, we refuse to become similarly dependent on foreign suppliers of weapons; indeed, the Department of Defense tries to maintain more than one supplier for its various needs. Vaccines ought to fall under that same policy, and for much the same reason: Our lives may depend on the availability of multiple domestic sources in a crisis.
That seems fairly common sense, particularly if we extrapolate out to vaccines for weaponized biological agents. In case of an attack, every country will be focusing on saving its own citizens and the normal conventions of pharmaceutical trade will almost certainly break down. Do we have domestic companies on the ball here?
Also worth noting is Starr's point that the 1918 pandemic -- also a bird flu -- was particularly deadly for the young and healthy. That's not, as you can imagine, exactly what I was hoping to hear.
