We’re Not Ready for a Flu Pandemic<br />The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, the other federal agency responsible for developing<br />and making available new vaccines for emergency response, has in fiscal year 2017 only a single project for $43 million supporting game-changing influenza vaccines.<br />While H7N9 still is rarely transmitted human to human, it may be just one spin of the genetic<br />roulette wheel away from mutations that could make it the next human pandemic strain.<br />Its national security strategy published last month cites Ebola<br />and SARS as potential bioterrorism and pandemic threats, yet makes no mention of the risk of pandemic influenza nor any aspect of critical vaccine research and development<br />To make matters worse, in Australia, which experienced its flu season four to six months ago, the current<br />vaccine appeared to be only about 10 percent effective against this year’s dominant strain.<br />Limited global manufacturing capacity combined with the five to six months it takes to<br />make these vaccines mean many people would never even have a chance to be vaccinated.<br />The 1918-19 Spanish flu epidemic (which despite the name may have originated<br />in the American Midwest) killed 50 million to 100 million around the globe.
