You Did What__ Mad Plans and Great Historical Disasters - Bill Fawcett [94]
Disaster 2: Rescue
It was a terrible time for the CDC. No one was dying from a disease it predicted but had last seen half a century ago. Fortunately for the CDC, between July 27 and August 6, 1976, Pennsylvania physicians noticed an outbreak of a new flu. It had the typical flu symptoms of malaise, muscle aches, critically high fever, headaches and an initial nonproductive cough. Unlike the flu of 1918, it generally infected older people who had existing lung disease and enlarged hearts. First reports came from the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in Pennsylvania, where 10,000 American Legionnaires were meeting at a state convention. Twenty-nine people died and 147 attendees were hospitalized from this strange disease with flulike symptoms. Was it Swine Flu, a commie plot, a new bacterial disease (later called Legionnaires’ disease)? No one could immediately say.
The CDC announced the “outbreak could be Swine Flu.” The symptoms were similar and homebound conventioneers might be spreading the disease throughout the nation. There was an immediate panic. The media went crazy. Gloom and doom was televised hourly. Everyone was scared. Resistance to the NIIP program evaporated in Congress.
In response to this panic, Congress passed the National Swine Flu Immunization Program of 1976. This rigid, new program gave the CDC and FDA money and authority to continue the immunization program. Two hundred million doses of vaccine were produced. Eventually 40 percent of the U.S. population was vaccinated. As a convenience measure, Swine Flu vaccine was mixed with most of the nation’s Victoria Flu (1976–77 annual mild flu) vaccine supply.
There was a problem. By August 20, there were no new cases of what was termed Legionnaires’ disease. There was no evidence of Swine Flu in these patients or in tests conducted elsewhere in the United States. The CDC was stumped. On December 6, 1976, three patients died of side effects a few hours after getting their Swine Flu shots at a Pittsburgh center. The media picked up this news and within a month the program was halted. It was obvious: You had a greater chance of dying from the vaccine than the disease.
Many CDC officials “retired” along with the Ford administration (election loss). The CDC lost authority and funds. The results of this fiasco were that between 52 and 100 people died directly from vaccine side effects, and between 600 (official) and 3,675 (nonofficial) were paralyzed with Guillain-Barré syndrome. The federal government paid billions of dollars to victims and their families in liability lawsuits. The mixed Victoria–Swine Flu vaccine was dumped, leaving many elderly citizens without any flu protection for 1976 and 1977. There was not enough time to make new batches. Thousands of old and immunocompromised patients died of annual flu. The government proved that it could mount a nationwide vaccine program and vaccinate a significant portion of the population (wrong disease and vaccines were a “minor” issue).
As a representative from the World Health Organization (Dr. G. Nossel) mused, “You Americans ought to have your heads examined…No way would we permit it…There has been no proper investigation…The vaccine has not been properly researched…There are too many unknowns.”
So ended the great epidemic that wasn’t. The CDC, demoralized, shamed and short on funding, wandered through the next four years looking for a new epidemic. In 1981 they hit the jackpot: AIDS. It was time for business as usual.
You Are Rescuing Them How?
A camel is a horse designed by a committee. This was a military action that suffered a