0
Commentary |

Legal Concerns and the Influenza Vaccine Shortage

Michelle M. Mello, JD, PhD, MPhil; Troyen A. Brennan, MD, JD, MPH
JAMA. 2005;294(14):1817-1820. doi:10.1001/jama.294.14.1817.
Text Size: A A A
Published online

Extract

Concerns have arisen that the paucity of suppliers of influenza vaccine for the US market, which contributed to the shortage of vaccine in 2004, is largely attributable to the legal liability that vaccine manufacturers face. For instance, in October 2004, President Bush signed into law the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004,1 adding influenza vaccine to the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), the administrative scheme that is the first-line legal remedy for certain vaccine-related injuries. Although the introduction of the bill predated the 2004 flu vaccine shortage,23 it presaged public concern about how the legal environment may be affecting vaccine supplies. In October, a nongovernmental organization called the Club for Growth ran a full-page newspaper advertisement4 that read, “Can’t get a flu shot? Thank the trial lawyers.” In the presidential debates, President Bush commented that manufacturers have stopped producing flu vaccine because they “are worried about getting sued.”5 A public opinion poll showed that 41% of Americans apportioned blame for the flu vaccine shortage to trial lawyers.6

Sign In to Access Full Content

Don't have Access?

Register and get free email Table of Contents alerts, saved searches, PowerPoint downloads, CME quizzes, and more

Subscribe for full-text access to content from 1998 forward and a host of useful features

Activate your current subscription (AMA members and current subscribers)

Purchase Online Access to this article for 24 hours

First Page Preview

View Large
First page PDF preview

Figures

Tables

Interactive Graphics

Video

Country-Specific Mortality and Growth Failure in Infancy and Yound Children and Association With Material Stature

Use interactive graphics and maps to view and sort country-specific infant and early dhildhood mortality and growth failure data and their association with maternal

References

CME
Accreditation Information
The American Medical Association is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The AMA designates this journal-based CME activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM per course. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. Physicians who complete the CME course and score at least 80% correct on the quiz are eligible for AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM.
Note: You must get at least of the answers correct to pass this quiz.
You have not filled in all the answers to complete this quiz
The following questions were not answered:
Sorry, you have unsuccessfully completed this CME quiz with a score of
The following questions were not answered correctly:
Commitment to Change (optional):
Indicate what change(s) you will implement in your practice, if any, based on this CME course.
Your quiz results:
The filled radio buttons indicate your responses. The preferred responses are highlighted
For CME Course: A Proposed Model for Initial Assessment and Management of Acute Heart Failure Syndromes
Indicate what changes(s) you will implement in your practice, if any, based on this CME course.
NOTE:
Citing articles are presented as examples only. In non-demo SCM6 implementation, integration with CrossRef’s “Cited By” API will populate this tab (http://www.crossref.org/citedby.html).
Submit a Response

Some tools below are only available to our subscribers or users with an online account.

Web of Science® Times Cited: 12

Sign In to Access Full Content

Related Content

Customize your page view by dragging & repositioning the boxes below.

Articles Related By Topic
Related Topics
PubMed Articles
Jobs