Flu: A Government U-Turn too late?

[Gromit]

Penny Pinching Government scrapped the annual flu advertising campaign. The result was a shockingly low take up of the flu jab this year.

http://www.dailymail....-jab-given-fives.html

Now, with the worse outbreak for 20 years, and the highest incidence in under fives for 10 years, the Minister for U-Turns has flipped again, and the advertising campaign is set to be relaunched.

Reassuring don't you think, that when voters start to die, that the Government admits its mistake?

[rov1200]

As long as we don't get into the situation that Canada found itself into:

/// Official reports have confirmed that Health Canada has gone ahead and shortened the shelf life of adjuvanted Swine Flu, or H1N1, vaccine, which means that most of the 47,000 unused doses of vaccine in Saskatchewan will be expiring next week///

[Gromit]

The remainder of the news report that Rov quotes above goes on to explain that the vaccine is not as effective for as long as previousl thought

// Dr. McKinnon, on late Thursday night, heard that Health Canada, after a thorough consultation with the vaccine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, pulled down the expiry date of the nation's adjuvanted H1N1 vaccine.

The revision, however, is not safety-related but mostly due to a fall in the strength of the H1N1 antigen in some particular lots.

Dr. McKinnon shared that the antigen has managed to destabilize much more quickly than previously expected, and therefore, it no longer in a sufficient enough quantity to develop an immune response. //

As the UK bought 100 million doses last year, and only a small fraction were used, I guess we will be throwing away even more than Canada.