One Flu over the Cuckoo's Nest

This item, posted at the awkwardly named Liberty Lover web log, presses a real hot button with me. It also happens to dovetail with one the most outrageous stories in an outstanding and essential book I recently read, Give Me a Break, by John Stossel.

FLU VACCINE SHORTAGE: Well, it’s not because market forces or industry collusion caused the shortage. Trial lawyers are a secondary reason. The primary reason?

The answer is that Congress decided 10 years ago to have the government buy up most of the vaccines at fixed, below-market prices. The Vaccines for Children Program, established by the Clinton administration and a Democratic Congress in 1994, federalized much of the once-private U.S. market for vaccines — vastly expanding the government's role as price-setter and production manager. (Despite the name, it covered many shots for adults, too.)

Pitched as a way to improve development and supply, VFC wrote price controls on vaccines into federal law. Faced with government-set low prices — and with development and production costs soaring thanks to frivolous lawsuits, other new regulations and the need to invest in new technology — companies have been pulling out of the vaccine business in droves.

And now, naturally, Hillary Clinton blames—who else?—the Bush administration for the vaccine shortage. It sure is great to know that politicians, price controls, excessive regulation, and trial lawyers contributed to the circumstances that left so many vulnerable to influenza in the many years since the Orwellian “Vaccines for Children Program” was passed, and that undoubtedly killed more people—possibly including my daughter—than they saved.