Swine 'Flu

The Swine Flu affair is the exemplar of the old adage that the cure can be worse than the disease.  Millions were adversely affected by the vaccine injection, including hundreds who suffered the debilitating and frequently lethal consequences of Guillain-Barré Syndrome.  On the other side of the ledger, there were only three verified cases of A/New Jersey/76 swine flu ever reported.  On the surface an official fiasco, the Swine Flu program was ultimately attributed to the overzealous, but apparently "well-meaning intentions" of government medical officials.  In retrospect, from its putative origin to its illogical denouement, powerful political forces vigorously pursued this reckless and dangerous experiment.

The fact that a government agency employing a campaign of fear coerced politicians into endorsing, and citizens into receiving, injections of an untested vaccine is troubling.  Perhaps more troubling is the fact that prior to activation of the program, its administrators were clearly aware that the disease posed no serious danger to the public.   

It might have just been a coincidence that the original three flu patients were soldiers stationed at the Fort Dix military compound.  Incidentally, the lethal specter cast over the "dreaded" Swine Flu affair was solely due to the demise of its one and only victim: a recent recruit with pneumonia who collapsed during a five mile night march in the middle of winter.

It might also have been a coincidence that the questionable swine flu outbreak was reported by the military only five days after adjournment of the First International Conference concerned with Influenza: Virus, Vaccines, and Strategy1, sponsored by the government and pharmaceutical industry. 

Even before the participants returned home and unpacked their bags, officials at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta forged the conferee's theoretical and speculative conclusions into law.  Commanding authority, the CDC manipulated politicians, including President Ford, and subverted federal law to ensure activation of the now infamous National Swine Flu Immunization Program.1-3 

The forces behind the Swine Flu affair were indeed overzealous, but as for their well-meaning intentions, one may ask, "Well-meaning for Whom?".

Influenza: Virus,Vaccines, and Strategy.  Proceedings of a Working Group on Pandemic Influenza, Rougemont, 26-28 January 1976.  Philip Selby, ed. Published for Sandoz Institute for Health and Socio-Economic Studies by Academic Press, New York, 1976.

The Swine Flu Affair: Decision-Making on a Slippery Disease.  R. E. Neustadt and H. V. Fineberg.  Published by U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Washington, D.C., 1978

Pure Politics and Impure Science: The Swine Flu Affair. A. M. Silverstein. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1981