Pandemic Vaccine Distribution Policy for the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

"Over this past decade, Congress has responded to the growing threat of bioterrorism and risks to US national security with increased funding for biosecurity and public health preparedness. This has included investment in domestic vaccine manufacturing capacity by the United States government. As a result, a policy of vaccine production self-sufficiency has emerged that should cause policy makers to pause and ask: '''what is the next step?'۪ In the near future, this policy may create a surge of efficient vaccine production that current emergency distribution models are ill equipped to manage. This article presents the results of a research project aimed at developing a model that could serve as a strategy for pandemic vaccine distribution. It argues that as the nation readied for its first pandemic in forty years, it benefited from investments in preparedness but still found itself unprepared for the 2009 H1N1 Pandemic vaccination campaign."