The Project on Government Oversight is calling for transparency in the H1N1 vaccine program to discover why there is a shortage of vaccine. -DB
November 2, 2009
By Bryan Rahija
Last Friday, POGO renewed its calls for transparency in the government’s H1N1 vaccine program. In a letter sent to Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, we urged the Secretary to make public several aspects of the program, which continues to suffer from shortages. In brief:
The vaccine shortage may be an inevitable result of DHHS’s mistakes of the past. Those mistakes should be disclosed so they won’t be repeated. The lack of disclosure is a problem that is easy and inexpensive to fix.
Specifically, we argue that the Department should disclose:
Contracts for vaccine production; The extent to which the program depends on foreign manufacturers and the justification for this dependence;
Decisions that led to the delay in production of alternative vaccines.