The American Spectator

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Special Report

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OUR FLU PROTECTION CURRENTLY resides in a system that is perilously close to the old Soviet "planning" model. One big government institution -- the CDC -- directs the decisions of two giant manufacturers.

What is missing here is the capitalist dynamic. If there were a dozen manufacturers operating independently, a couple would have undoubtedly taken a chance with the Fujian strain. One might have even bet the farm and produced an oversupply, taking the chance the other manufacturers would be caught short. That gambler would have made a fortune -- and the country would have had enough vaccines.

Instead, we have a lumbering bureaucracy whose main product is platitudes. "We're exploring all options," said Tom Skinner, spokesman for the CDC. "We need more research. It's ridiculous to be relying on chicken eggs. We need new manufacturing methods." Did he have anything specific in mind -- something that's been tried in the laboratories or shown to work elsewhere?

"Not really," he said.

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