WASHINGTON – As public discontent festers in response to inadequate H1N1 vaccine supplies, Congressional calls for answers continue to swell.
Before a hearing of the Homeland Security committee, Department of Health and Human Services representatives responded Tuesday to accusations that the government had failed to adequately prioritize distribution of the swine flu vaccine amidst widespread shortages.
“People are frustrated because they want to take the recommended steps,” said Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman. “What did cause this problem? Because it didn’t just happen. Something went wrong.”
Lieberman, I-Conn., described situations in which parents were “going on wild goose chases trying to get vaccine for their children,” only to find that none was available.
The HHS had initially estimated roughly 160 million people would seek vaccinations. But, according to government estimates, only 7 percent of the doses required to vaccinate that target group were available as of mid-October.
In addition, HHS had designated a “subset priority group” of 42 million people at greater risk from H1N1 – a group that includes children and pregnant women. But, despite shortages, the government had chosen not to direct states to distribute the vaccine to this priority group.
“Why wasn’t the plan altered when manufacturing problems first became evident?” asked the committee’s ranking member, Maine Republican Susan Collins.
“Instead of false assurances,” Collins continued, the federal government should have been focused on “revising and clearly communicating a new vaccine distribution strategy.”
The lack of such a defined plan, the senators argued, has led to public confusion, anger and frustration.
Questions surrounding this distribution plan were initially lobbed at HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius in a letter sent Monday by Lieberman and Collins.
While Sebelius was not present at Tuesday’s hearing, representatives from HHS fielded queries in her stead.
Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said that she and other HHS members had consulted with state and federal officials, as well as other field experts, and had determined that the specifics of distribution were best dictated by state level authorities.
“What we heard pretty consistently was ‘leave the flexibility to the state and local [authorities],’” Schuchat said.
Lieberman disagreed with that decision.
“This is a national problem, and there was a focus on national alerts about this,” he said. “I think this is a case really where it would have been better to have a national answer.”
“We did really feel that local and state experts and authorities were in a better position than we were or others were in Washington to know how to best reach the population,” Schuchat responded.
As of last week, the Centers for Disease Control estimated that roughly 22 million Americans have been infected by H1N1, leading to about 98,000 hospitalizations and almost 4,000 deaths. Demand for the vaccine still far outweighs supply, despite recent upticks in manufacturing.
At one point, Lieberman praised the HHS for its ability to produce an H1N1 vaccination in “record time.”
“But,” he said, “I’m afraid that a good situation has turned bad.”