Swine flu review in 2010 called for a wiser vaccine plan for future pandemics
The UK has been largely unprepared for manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines.
This weekend the government announced some £215 million in further funding to develop new vaccines and set up manufacturing facilities that are currently lacking.
But a 2010 report reviewing the response to swine flu had already warned of the danger of another, more severe, pandemic and called for advance-purchase agreements for vaccines with drug companies.
Here we republish the article about that report in full.
Cut better deals on vaccines, says swine flu report
The government should arrange more flexible contracts with drug companies in any future pandemic, an independent report on the UK’s response to swine flu has said.
The review, led by former chief medical officer Deirdre Hine, found that the response to the pandemic was “proportionate and effective”, and included “expert” scientific advice and communication.
However, critics have reacted angrily to the £1.2 billion price tag compared to the relatively low number of eventual deaths, at 457.
Only a fraction of the total stockpile of vaccines were eventually used and the report recommends that the Department of Health seek to negotiate advance-purchase agreements that will allow flexibility over the eventual quantities bought.
The report also suggested that ministers should decide whether in the future they want to operate on the basis of worst-case or most-likely scenarios in terms of the number of deaths expected.
But Hine stresses that there remains the danger of another, more severe, pandemic, and that the government and public must avoid complacency.