Some of the blame for the growth of novel H1N1 could be laid at the door of the agricultural policies of the rich countries of the West, The disease then released kills the poor but the rich protect their own……..
Imminent decisions on a strategy for H1N1 pandemic flu vaccination in the United States could leave other countries short of vital doses if it elects not to follow World Health Organization (WHO) advice on vaccine formulation.
The United States is the biggest buyer among a group of rich countries whose combined orders for vaccine against the H1N1 2009 virus could potentially tie up most of the world’s pandemic vaccine production capacity for 6 months or longer, so depriving other countries of vaccine.
To counter this prospect, the WHO recommended on 13 July that countries use shots that contain adjuvants, chemicals that boost the immune system’s response to a vaccine. This allows smaller amounts of antigen — the molecule that stimulates the immune response — to be used in each dose, boosting the overall amount of vaccine available from existing production capacity and allowing orders to be filled more quickly.
The United States’ global responsibility to consider dose-sparing strategies is briefly alluded to in the minutes of a mid-June US National Biodefense Science Board meeting, released on 17 July: “Federal decision-making will affect not only the 300 million Americans who depend on the government to support the public health system but also people all around the world.”
The United States has certainly kept open the option of using adjuvants. It has already allocated almost US$2 billion for antigen and adjuvant to provide every American with up to two doses of vaccine. That sum includes orders of $483 million for Novartis’s MF59 adjuvant, and $215 million for GlaxoSmithKline’s AS03 adjuvant.
But although Canada and many European countries are set to use adjuvanted pandemic flu vaccines, the United States may do so only as a last resort. “All things being equal, an unadjuvanted vaccine is often just fine in terms of giving protection against influenza virus,”