Congress: How Did H1N1 Vaccine Fall Short?

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2009— -- A top Centers for Disease Control official today conceded the government was partially at fault for leading Americans to expect more H1N1 flu vaccine than would be ultimately available.

Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC testified before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing this afternoon.

"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, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen 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."