H1N1 Vaccine

Henry Arcano                                                                                                            9/21/09

Current Events                                                                                                Chemistry

  The recent outbreak of H1N1 virus has countries scrambling to get some of the vaccine for the flu that is being created by scientists. But are Americans obligated to protect people in other countries? That is the center of the debate on whether to use adjuvants in the vaccine that the US is going to use to stop the advance of the H1N1 virus, also known as Swine Flu. The world is facing possible shortages of vaccine because many of the richer countries are contracting for a lot of the vaccine. Not only can adjuvants lessen the dose needed for a vaccine, but they also can increase the potency of a vaccine.  However, if adjuvants, which can make the vaccine more effective and allow more of it to be created for the poorer nations of the world.  Despite the fact that there are no known health risks, the adjuvants aren’t being used in the US because there is some uncertainty in using them. The fears are that with the uncertainty of the adjuvants, the public may be dissuaded from getting the vaccine. But America will have to get used to adjuvants pretty soon. Adjuvants are probably going to be the future of vaccines because many of the new vaccines simply don’t work well without any adjuvants. The adjuvant created with aluminum salts, alum, is the only adjuvant being used in the US after 80 years. Flu and bird flu shots with adjuvants have been in use in Europe for years, unlike the US. An adjuvant was needed in the bird flu vaccine because without adjuvants, the vaccines wouldn’t work well. Because officials thought swine flu might be the same, federal officials ordered 700 million dollars of adjuvants. However, the FDA is not allowing the adjuvants to be used except in emergencies, despite the fact that the vaccines with adjuvants would only need one fourth of the vaccine used in a regular vaccine. The FDA has stayed by their decision, despite the evidence that there is no reason to do so because they believe that adjuvants may cause autoimmune disease.

            The information in this article affects humanity in general because if all countries used adjuvants, then there would be enough vaccines for the poorer countries of the world. But with many wealthy countries contracting regular vaccines, there will be a shortage of vaccines in the poorer countries of the world. Those countries will have to receive the vaccines later on, as there is a clear shortage of vaccine supplies. We Americans will be using the regular vaccine, without an adjuvant.

            I believe that this article was not only clear and well written, but that it also made excellent explanations of all the terms that I didn’t understand. For example, I had no idea what an adjuvant was, or had even heard of it, but now I know that an adjuvant is an addition to a vaccine that is needed when not all parts of a pathogen in a vaccine are used. I now know the importance of adjuvants and why they are not being used in the US and why they are being used elsewhere. However, the article did not do a good job explaining what an adjuvant contains, for I still do not know.

 

Pollack, Andrew. "Benefit and Doubt in Vaccine Addictive." The New York Times 21 Sep. 2009. Web. 22 Sep. 2009 .