HOW TO DEAL WITH SWINE FLU: HEEDING THE MISTAKES OF 1967

HOW TO DEAL WITH THE SWINE FLU: HEEDING THE MISTAKES OF 1976

In February, 1976, an outbreak of swine flu struck Fort Dix Army Base in New Jersey, killing a 19-year private and infecting hundreds of soldiers. Concerned that the U.S. was on the verge of a devastating epidemic, President Gerald Ford ordered a nationwide vaccination program at a cost of $135 million (some $500 million in today’s money). Within weeks, reports surfaced of people developing Guillain-Barree syndrome, a paralyzing nerve disease that can be caused by the vaccine. By April, more then 30 people had died of the condition. Facing protests, federal officials abruptly canceled the program on Dec. 16. The epidemic failed to materialize.
Medical historians and epidemiologists say there are many differences between the relatively benign 1967 outbreak and the current strain of swine flu that is spreading across the globe. But they also say the decisions made in the wake of the ’76 outbreak-and the public’s response to them-provide a cautionary tale for public health officials.
“I think 1976 provides an example of how not to handle a flu outbreak, but what’s interesting is that it made a good deal of sense at the time,” says Hugh Pennington, an emeritus professor of virology at Britain’s University of Aberdeen. Pennington points out that conventional wisdom in 1967 held the 1918 flu pandemic-which started among soldiers and eventually killed as many as 40 million-was the result of swine flu (scientists now know it was in fact a strain of bird flu). Pennington says, “At the moment, our understanding of the current outbreak is similarly limited. For example, we don’t yet understand why people are dying in Mexico but not elsewhere.”
1976 , Ford offered indemnity to the vaccine manufacturers. But according to reports, President GeorgeW. Bush decided in 2002 not to administer a nationwide smallpox vaccination program-despite Vice President Dick Cheney’s belief that doing so was a prudent counterterrorism step-because it could have resulted in dozens of deaths (the smallpox vaccine kills between 1 and 2 people per million people inoculated).
Howard Markel, director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan and a historical consultant to the CDC on flu pandemics, says the most vexing decision facing health officials is when to institute mass vaccination programs.