Congress Searches for Answers on H1N1 Vaccine Shortage

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18, 2009— -- Today members of Congress continued to press national health officials on the discrepancy between H1N1 vaccine supply and public demand.

"I don't think there's a smoking gun and I want to make that really clear. It is a very complicated process," Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Nicole Lurie said at the House Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee hearing.

"I don't think there's anybody to blame here," Lurie said.

But Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., who was out of work in late October after being diagnosed with H1N1, did not seem satisfied with the response, probing further about the HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' awareness of vaccine delays when testifying in September.

"We had testimonies September 15 from Secretary Sebelius and everything seemed to be on track and fine. So, explain who, did the manufacturers, weren't they straight with you? What's this rosy picture piece?" Walden pressed.

"At every step of the way things happened," said Laurie. "When the secretary testified she was using the best available information she had at the time."

Health officials also appeared on Capitol Hill Tuesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, conceded during her testimony that the government was partially at fault for leading Americans to expect more H1N1 flu vaccine than would be ultimately available.

"One thing I think we can look back and say was a mistake is some of our communication… whether we meant to or not, I think we led expectations of availability to be higher than they have been, and so that, that I think can lead to frustration," Schuchat testified.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the ranking Republican on the committee, highlighted the anxiety expressed by her constituents, citing an 11-year-old boy who fell into the "high-risk" category, but still had difficulty getting vaccinated.

"He has two auto-immune diseases and asthma, placing him in the high-risk group for complications. Yet even after his mother called several possible sources, schools, the main CDC, doctors' offices both in Maine and in Boston, hospitals, health care clinics, pharmacies, she could not find any vaccine available for her son."

Collins said a source was eventually found nearly a six-hour roundtrip drive from the family's home.

"That," she said, "is just not right." Collins reminded Schuchat that her boss Sebelius painted a much brighter picture of the vaccine plan over the summer.

"Secretary Sebelius said by early November, 'We are confident that vaccine is going to be far more widely available. There is enough vaccine and will be to vaccinate every American who wants to be vaccinated and we are pushing it out as quickly as we can,'" Collins said.

Earlier this week, Collins and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., who chaired the hearing, had written a letter to Sebelius, demanding to know why the HHS department "insisted on promoting a plan for which the federal government did not have anywhere near sufficient resources to implement."