WP: Pediatric Vaccine Stockpile at Risk

[kskiska]

Makers Hesitate to Supply Government

Sunday, April 17, 2005; Page A01

Just three years after the largest and most serious shortage of childhood vaccines in two decades, the federal government's stockpile of childhood vaccines, designed as a buffer against shortages, is nearly empty -- and without immediate prospects of being filled.

Three of the four companies that produce the shots recommended for every American child told the federal government last year that they would not sell their products to this little-known but important piece of the nation's public health infrastructure.

Although opinions differ, it appears that the Pediatric Vaccine Stockpile has become an innocent bystander wounded in the government's crackdown on deceptive accounting practices.

No one has accused the vaccine manufacturers of wrongdoing. However, they can no longer treat as revenue the money they get when they sell millions of doses of vaccine to the stockpile because the shots are not delivered until the government calls for them in emergencies. Instead, the vials are held in the manufacturers' warehouses, where they are considered unsold in the eyes of auditors, investors and Wall Street.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59516-2005Apr16.html

[booksenkatz]

1. Yet another Republican version of abortion. NT

[gumby]

2. "Fodder Units," as Poppy Bush

allegedly defines the underclass are superfluous.

If your not wealthy or 'religiously' powerful, well..... you're NOT worth ANYTHING. $$$$$$$$$$$

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Page One! But whatever the cause of this risk...

will the Bush administration be held in any way responsible for this, as any other administration would? I doubt it.