Nationwide shortage of flu vaccines

[Perinquus]

Chicken Soup Replaces Flu Vaccine

Flu Shot Larceny

THE FLU VACCINE SHORTAGE

And there are lots, lots more links you can find to articles reporting this problem. This is not the first year we have had a shortfall in flu vaccines either.

The problem arose because of the low-price large quantity purchase of vaccines by the federal government. Ever since the federal government became the biggest single buyer of flu vaccine in this country, and imposed federal price controls, it has been unprofitable to produce flu vaccine. Most companies can't produce enough to make a profit. And (quel surprise!), when a business becomes unprofitable, people get out of the business.

Price controls have a long history all over the world. The Emperor Diocletian tried to save the Roman economy buy price fixing, and it didn't work for him any better than it ever has for anyone else.

Every time it's tried, artificially keeping prices lower than they would be under supply and demand produces shortages (and black markets). It is no different for flu vaccines than it is for food, housing, medical care or innumerable other things.

This is another reason I can't vote for Kerry. In the last debate, he mentioned the need to allow consumers in this country to buy low cost drugs from Canada. If he gets elected, and manages to do that, he will wreck most pharmaceutical companies the same way the makers of flu vaccines were ruined. It costs millions, if not billions of dollars for a new drug to be developed and put through the years of FDA testing to get it approved. It costs millions more for pharmaceutical companies to defend against lawsuits, some of which are legitimate, but some of which are frivolous. The cold, hard economic reality is that these costs have to be passed along to the customer if a company is to stay in business and keep making the drugs. If the drug companies cannot recoup their investments in developing new drugs, they will go out of business.