Is liability the reason for the flu vaccine shortage?(PRO & CON)

YES

There is strong evidence that our nation's culture of lawsuit abuse is a contributing factor to the current flu vaccine crisis--a crisis that undermines public health and threatens public safety.

This shortfall in flu vaccine will have consequences. While there are efforts underway to ration vaccine to those who need it most--young children, the elderly, those with chronic conditions, and others, patients who might otherwise have been vaccinated will get sick--or worse.

At one time, there were more than 12 domestic vaccine manufacturers. Today there are just two.

Part of the reason for this decline in the number of manufacturers is economics. According to John Calfee, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, "[the government has] pretty much taken the money out of the vaccine market."

But liability is also a significant factor in the business of vaccine production. From 1950 to 1979, the price of the diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT) vaccine and the diphtheria-tetanus (DT) vaccine was virtually the same, about $2.60 for a 15-dose vial. Then, in the 1970s and the 1980s, vaccine makers faced more than 800 lawsuits surrounding the pertussis component of the vaccine. As a result, the DPT vaccine now costs $160 for a 15-dose vial, while the DT vaccine costs just $6.65.

For companies that have left the vaccine market, there is little incentive to return and invest millions in the search for new vaccines when the only guaranteed return on that investment will be bogus lawsuits that circumvent the very laws designed to protect us.