Abstract
In the past 40 years, technically driven responses to flu pandemics have twice called science and public health into disrepute. The most recent occasion was in 2009 when the unexpected emergence of a quadruple reassortment swine flu virus in Mexico triggered contracts for the distribution of billions of dollars worth of antiviral drugs and vaccines—the political fallout from which, in light of the mild nature of the pandemic, is still the subject of controversy today. The other occasion was in 1976 when the emergence at Fort Dix, New Jersey, of another strain of swine flu prompted the United States Public Health Service to wage an unprecedented nation-wide inoculation campaign. Approved at the highest levels of the Ford government, the programme resulted in the vaccination of 42 million Americans but was soon labelled a costly ‘fiasco’ when people began suffering adverse reactions and the pandemic proved far milder than experts had anticipated.
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