WASHINGTON, Oct 18: With huge lines forming for rare supplies of influenza vaccines, US authorities are battling growing public concern while Democratic presidential contender John Kerry has turned the crisis into an election issue.
Elderly Americans have stood in line for several hours in front of hospitals and pharmacies across the country to get their shots. One woman died over the weekend in California while waiting in line.
Authorities in Bloomfield, in the northeastern state of New Jersey, set up a lottery to distribute its precious last 300 doses.
The supply shortage occurred after British authorities closed down a factory run by US pharmaceutical firm Chiron after finding traces of bacteria in vaccines. The factory provides half of vaccines - 48 million - needed by the United States. The flu season typically peaks between December and March.
Bush and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have urged healthy Americans to forgo the vaccine so more vulnerable Americans - infants and adults older than 65 - can get an anti-flu shot.
But Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson on Sunday said, "We are not in a crisis."
"I want people to relax," Thompson told Fox News Channel.
Kerry, who has seized on the flu shot shortage to blast Bush's health care record, said of Thompson's remark: "Why doesn't he tell that to the elderly Americans who are waiting in line for hours to get their shot?" He called the shortage a "George Bush mess."
The Massachusetts senator has accused Bush and his administration of ignoring warning signs of a possible shortage of a vaccine that is distributed by only two companies. Chiron and the French company Aventis-Pasteur are the only distributors in the United States.
Kerry derided the Republican president's call for healthy Americans to hold off flu shots this year.
"Sounds like his health care plan: 'Pray you don't get sick,'" Kerry, who will face Bush in the November 2 election, said Sunday.
"This really underscores the problem with the American health care system," he said.
Kerry continued his assault while campaigning in Florida on Monday, saying, Bush "gave the standard speech about prayer and flu shots, that's the way it works - under his plan you don't have a prayer of getting a flu shot."
In his attacks against Bush's record, Kerry has pointed to US census figures showing that 45 million Americans remain without health insurance and the rising costs of health coverage and prescription drugs.
Bush has blamed the decision by US pharmaceutical to stop producing flu shots on their fear of getting sued.
"We have a problem with litigation in the United States of America," the president said at the last of three televised debates against Kerry last week.
"Vaccine manufacturers are worried about getting sued, and therefore they have backed off from providing this kind of vaccine," Bush said.
He added, "I haven't gotten a flu shot, and I don't intend to because I want to make sure those who are most vulnerable get treated."-AFP
