[Marxism] The Great Swine Flu [non-]Epidemic of 1976

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.salon.com/env/feature/2009/04/28/1976_swine_flu/print.html
The great swine flu epidemic
"This virus will kill 1 million Americans," declared the U.S. in 1976. The
panic then has a lot to teach us today. 
By Patrick Di Justo

Apr. 28, 2009 | 

There is evidence there will be a major flu epidemic this coming fall. The
indication is that we will see a return of the 1918 flu virus that is the
most virulent form of the flu. In 1918 a half million Americans died. The
projections are that this virus will kill one million Americans in 1976.
-- F. David Matthews, secretary of health, education, and welfare (Feb.,
1976)

In January 1976, 19-year old U.S. Army Private David Lewis, stationed at
Fort Dix, joined his platoon on a 50-mile hike through the New Jersey snow.
Lewis didn't have to go; he was suffering from flu and had been confined to
his quarters by his unit's medical officer. Thirteen miles into the hike,
Lewis collapsed and died a short time later of pneumonia caused by
influenza. Because Lewis was young, generally healthy and should not have
succumbed to the common flu, his death set off a cascade of uncertainty that
confused the scientists, panicked the government and eventually embittered a
public made distrustful of authority by Vietnam and Watergate.

This past Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano left open the
possibility of a mass immunization program for the current outbreak of swine
flu. If that happens, the Obama administration has a lot to learn from the
debacle set in motion by Private Lewis' ill-fated hike.

Lewis was a victim of swine flu, a form of influenza endemic to pig
populations. Influenza is caused by a virus, a microorganism that is mostly
dead and partially alive. The virus' genetic code, held inside a protein
sheath, consists of several helices of RNA. The virus injects its RNA into a
healthy cell, which causes the cell to stop its usual work and make more
copies of the virus. RNA genes mutate easily; for this reason, each new flu
season brings a slightly different form of the disease into the population.
Most year-to-year mutations bring little change to the virus, but for some
still unknown reason, influenza seems to undergo a significant genetic
change every ten years or so.

This major mutation results in a radically new strain of flu, one that races
through a population because few people are immune to it. The dangerous
influenza epidemics of 1938, 1947, 1957 (60,000 dead in the U.S.) and 1968
(the dreaded Hong Kong flu) fit this pattern. It was believed that swine
flu, a particularly deadly form of the virus, had a 60-year mutation cycle
that brought on worldwide pandemics, killing millions of people. Both the
10- and 60-year cycles were due to converge in the mid 1970s; Lewis' death
in 1976 was thought to be the first instance of a new, incredibly lethal
type of flu.

Doctors from the Centers for Disease Control tested Private Lewis' blood,
and determined that his immune system had developed antibodies to a strain
of flu similar to the Spanish influenza of 1918. That particular strain of
swine flu produced the worst human pandemic of the 20th century: 1 billion
sick in every country of the world, at least 22 million dead in the space of
a few months. If Lewis had been exposed to something like the 1918 flu
virus, the world could be in for an extensive and lethal outbreak. CDC
doctors, charged with protecting the U.S. from epidemics, began to worry.

By the end of January, 155 soldiers at Fort Dix reported positive for swine
flu antibodies. None of the soldiers' families or co-workers, however, had
been exposed to the virus; all of the reported swine flu cases had been
limited to the soldiers in Private Lewis' camp. The virus wasn't spreading.
For some reason this information did not mollify the doctors, and on Feb.
14, 1976, the CDC issued a notice to all U.S. hospitals to be on the lookout
for any cases of swine flu.

By March, the normal end of flu season, worldwide cases of all types of flu
had diminished, and not one case of swine flu had been reported outside of
Fort Dix. For some reason this news did not placate the doctors either, and
on March 13, 1976, the director of the CDC asked Congress for money to
develop and test enough swine flu vaccine to immunize at least 80 percent of
the population of the United States, believed to be the minimum needed to
avoid an epidemic.

1976 was the year of the U.S. Bicentennial. 1976 was a presidential election
year. 1976 was two years after Watergate caused Nixon's resignation, and one
year after the fall of Saigon. The U.S. government, both Republicans and
Democrats, had never been held in such low esteem. Practically every elected
official felt an overwhelming itch that patriotic year to do something to
get the public thinking of them as good guys again. A swine flu pandemic was
an opportunity on a plate. What better way to get into the good graces of
the voters than to save them from a plague?

Between March 13 and March 24, the U.S. government dealt with the perceived
flu emergency at fever pitch. The vaccine request went from the CDC to the
secretary of HEW (Department of Health, Education and Welfare, the
forerunner of today's Department of Health and Human Services), and reached
the president's desk in less than a week. On March 24, the day after he lost
the North Carolina primary to Ronald Reagan, President Gerald Ford welcomed
the top virologists in the nation to a meeting in the White House and asked
them if the nation was facing a swine flu epidemic. Would mass vaccinations
be necessary? The doctors all said yes.

After the meeting, President Ford held a press conference with Jonas Salk
and Albert Sabin, developers of the polio vaccine. The president heralded
the impending flu plague and asked Congress for $135 million to investigate
the development of a swine flu vaccine, with the goal of vaccinating the
citizenry. This was probably the first time that most of the nation had
heard of swine flu.

Congress, with few exceptions, raced to support the bill. Knowing the
Republican president would not, could not veto a bill he requested, the
Democratically controlled House attached $1.8 billion dollars in welfare and
environmental spending to the flu bill. President Ford signed the bill on
April 15, 1976, and incorrectly remarked to the press that the Fort Dix
swine flu was identical to the deadly 1918 variety. He announced the
immunization program would begin in October.

The scientists began to come to their senses. By July, they were pretty much
agreed that a flu pandemic in 1976 would not lead to 1 million U.S. dead.
The flu strain extracted from Private Lewis, they learned, was much less
virulent that the 1918 strain, and modern medicine could handle an outbreak
far better than the World War I doctors could. The World Health Organization
ordered hospitals to keep a global lookout for swine flu, but it did not
request mass immunization of the population.

But the U.S. government was unstoppable. Congress began to pressure the drug
companies to work faster toward development of a swine flu vaccine. The drug
companies insisted that proper vaccine development required years of
experimentation and clinical trials, and they were reluctant to develop and
distribute an untested drug. The drug companies suggested that they could
work faster if they were given immunity from lawsuits in the event something
went wrong with the vaccine. Congress refused. The issue of legal liability
remained at an impasse until Aug. 2, 1976.

On that day, two members of the American Legion died of a strange
respiratory disease they acquired at the Legion's convention in
Philadelphia. Congress collectively freaked. Panicky news reports out of
Philadelphia hinted that the deaths were the beginning of the Great Swine
Flu Epidemic of 1976. On Aug. 3, Congress agreed to completely indemnify the
drug companies against any and all lawsuits they might incur as a result of
the distribution of swine flu vaccine. The drug companies got to work.

On the same day, the CDC Disease Etiology Team sprang into action, and it
had never performed better. On Aug. 5, the head of the CDC was able to
testify before Congress and announce conclusively that the Legionnaires had
died of a new disease, a type of pneumonia that was definitely not swine
flu. When Congress was informed that the dreaded epidemic had not started,
they canceled their indemnification agreement with the drug companies. The
drug companies announced that they would immediately cease development of
swine flu vaccines. They also began to hint that even if they were to be
re-indemnified, they now wanted Congress to guarantee them reasonable
profits from the development of the vaccines.

President Ford went on television that night and delivered a speech to the
nation, telling Americans that Congress will be to blame for your deaths
when the flu season begins in October. Congress caved in, and on Aug. 15,
President Ford signed the National Influenza Immunization Program (NIIP).
This set as a goal the immunization of at least 80 percent of the U.S.
population, indemnified the drug companies and left vague the government's
power to limit the drug companies' profit. The drug companies got to work.

By September, the swine flu scaffolding came crashing down. Pollsters
reported that while 93 percent of the population had heard of swine flu and
knew it could cause a million U.S. deaths, only 52 percent planned to get
immunized. The press was claiming that Congress had not done a good job of
educating the public. Congress members blamed the failure on the CDC. The
CDC was busy looking into the deaths of the Legionnaires; while they were
able to say that the Legionnaires had not died of swine flu, they were
unable to pin down what exactly what had killed the men. The American Legion
thought the whole thing was a Communist plot. Congressman John Murphy of
Staten Island claimed the CDC was stalling on identifying the Legionnaire's
disease to panic people into fearing swine flu. Murphy demanded an
investigation into the CDC and the indemnification deal made with the drug
companies. The heroic miracle that was supposed to overhaul the government's
image was rendered futile before it had started.

On Oct. 1, 1976, the immunization program began. By Oct. 11, approximately
40 million people had received swine flu immunizations, mostly through the
new compressed air vaccination guns. That evening, in Pittsburgh, came the
first blow to the immunization program: Three senior citizens died soon
after receiving their swine flu shots. The media outcry, linking the deaths
to the immunizations without any proof, was so loud it drew an on-air rebuke
from CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite, who warned his colleagues of the
dangers of post hoc ergo propter hoc ("after this, therefore, because of
this") thinking. But it was too late. The government had long feared mass
panic about swine flu -- now they feared mass panic about the swine flu
vaccinations.

The deaths in Pittsburgh, though proved not to be related to the vaccine,
were a strong setback to the program. The death blow came a few weeks later
when reports appeared of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a paralyzing neuromuscular
disorder, among some people who had received swine flu immunizations. The
public refused to trust a government-operated health program that killed old
people and crippled young people; as a result, less than 33 percent of the
population had been immunized by the end of 1976. The National Influenza
Immunization Program was effectively halted on Dec. 16.

Gerald Ford's attempt to gain credit for keeping America safe was busted. He
lost the presidential election to Jimmy Carter that November. The 1976 to
1977 flu season was the most flu-free since records had been kept; a
condition that was apparently unrelated to the vaccination program. The
Great Swine Flu Epidemic of 1976 never took place.
-- By Patrick Di Justo



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