From the day it was first reported in Mexico, swine flu took less than four months to become a full-fledged worldwide pandemic. So what’s the most effective way to stop the virus from infecting most of the globe? Widespread vaccination—which is why U.S. health officials are debating a nationwide swine flu vaccination program that would mandate the creation of 600 million immunizations, more than five times the 115 million vaccines administered each year to battle the seasonal flu.
Because of the flu virus’s notorious ability to mutate, a large-scale immunization program would require manufacturers to quickly produce vast quantities of vaccine.
Unfortunately for all of us, it’s unlikely that current vaccine production methods—which have been in use for more than half a century—could produce the quantity of vaccine that would be necessary in an emergency. Today’s vaccine production is so slow, costly, and inefficient that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services allotted $1 billion in 2006 toward the development of new techniques.
