grams. But I feel the American people are so mach mare inell geat and sensible that they are given credit for. They know the what it program was a binder Than the wee wee s government credinty and government decisionmaking The Ne is way when a government program ges underway as there s DUŠŠ DUDESSA the dissecting views are not listened to? I respects the fan the those responsible for the swine fu pro gram acted in good faith. I think they made the best pademens they could. What I am concerned about is that once decisions were made so amme our population, a public relations campagn gr underway which ended up deceiving our people and leaving in las wake public diSYST The only way to restore public trast is to dig into this program and find out what went wrong. In April. Secretary Califano an nounced a nanonal immunization program. We must learn from our mistakes in the past before we inaugurate a new immunization drive. I think the swine fu program was the Federal Government's "Moby Dick" I think it was a great white whale that we pursued so doggedly that commonsense was lost sight of. The program was a terrible waste. We thought it would cost $135 million, but it looks now like it will cost us well over $1 billion. We thought a national immunization program would draw us all together in a national effort. This was to be a model for future immunization programs. Instead, we squandered the precious trust the public accords us. Do you know what could be done with a $1 billion? We could provide all poor children with dental care. We could screen poor children for signs of mental retardation at an age when such a handicap is most easily treated. Can you conceive of how $1 billion could help programs for the handicapped of our Nation. Or how it could be used to modernize our veterans hospitals? When I think what could be done with the funds we now must devote to cleaning up after the swine flu program I feel frustrated. With all our expertise, why didn't we know better? I hope we can get answers to some of these questions in this hearing, and I want to thank the chairman for calling these hearings so that we can look into the issue of the swine flu immuniza tion program. Mr. ROGERS. Mr. Maquire, did you have a statement? Mr. ROGERS. We are pleased to have as our first witnesses the representatives of the General Accounting Office, who conducted the study requested by the committee. The witnesses are Mr. Gregory J. Ahart, Director of the Human Resources Division, General Accounting Office, who is accompanied by Jesse Flowers, Michael Burnett, and Peter Oswald, supervisory auditors of the General Accounting Office. We welcome all of you gentlemen here. Your statement will be made a part of the record in full at this point and you may proceed as desired. COMMITTEE ON INTERSTATE AND FOREIGN COMMERCE HARLEY O. STAGGERS, West Virginia, Chairman JOHN E. MOSS, California JOHN D. DINGELL, Michigan PAUL G. ROGERS, Florida LIONEL VAN DEERLIN, California RICHARDSON PREYER, North Carolina JAMES J. FLORIO, New Jersey ANTHONY TOBY MOFFETT, Connecticut JIM SANTINI, Nevada ANDREW MAGUIRE, New Jersey MARTY RUSSO, Illinois EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts THOMAS A. LUKEN, Ohio DOUG WALGREN, Pennsylvania BOB GAMMAGE, Texas ALBERT GORE, JR., Tennessee BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland SAMUEL L. DEVINE, Ohio JAMES T. BROYHILL, North Carolina CONTENTS Statement of— Abramson, Clarence A., senior counsel, Merck & Co. Inc Page 411 4 Bailey, William O., president, Aetna Life & Casualty 438, 487 Ahart, Gregory J., Director, Human Resources Division, General Accoun ing Office Biery, Richard M., M.D., on behalf of the United States Conference of City Bradford, Windell, Administrative Assistant to Dr. Millar, Bureau of State Burnett, Michael, Supervisory Auditor, General Accounting Office 397 37, 96 4 384 Flowers, Jesse, Supervisory Auditor, General Accounting Office 4 384 Goldbloom Irwin, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, Department of Justice 68 ......... Hagan, Charles F., general counsel, American Home Products Corp .411, 418 Jones, T. Lawrence, president, American Insurance Association...... Lamb, Frederick D., vice president and legal counsel, Merrell-National 438 411 438 37, 96 411, 426 Lloyd, Douglas S., M.D., on behalf of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO). 379 Markoe, Frank, Jr., vice chairman, Board of Directors, Warner-Lambert 411, 418 Meyer, Harry M., Jr., M.D., Director, Bureau of Biologics, Food and Drug 37, 96 37, 96 Morris, J. Anthony, Ph. D., Greenbelt, Md 406 Oswald, Peter, Supervisory Auditor, General Accounting Office 4 Peterson, Neil R., Assistant Chief, Torts Section, Civil Division, Department of Justice 68 Additional material submitted for the record by— American Insurance Association: Attachments to Mr. Jones' prepared statement: 450 Secretary Mathews' (HEW) telex to insurance companies dated 453 454 Swine flu vaccine program Memorandum dated November 10, 1976, to each subscribing Servicing carrier agreement for insurers of the manufacturers of Additional material submitted for the record by-Continued General Accounting Office, letter dated December 20, 1977, from Mr. Ahart to Chairman Rogers re correspondence concerning the scope of study; chronology of events and content of discussions which led to limiting the scope of evaluation of vaccine manufacturing costs; and for delayed study of vaccine manufacturing costs and agreement with requesting committees, with attached letters dated September 21, 1977, to Congressman Waxman and February 18, 1977, to Chairman John E. Moss, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.... Health, Education, and Welfare Department: Attachments to Dr. Millar's prepared statement: Figure I-Percent of persons with history of receiving influenza Figure II-Influenza vaccination coverage, percent by State as of Figure III-Guillain-Barre syndrome attack rates in vaccinated Figure V-Guillain-Barre syndrome relative risks for population "Evaluation and control of vaccines for the national influenza immuni- Table 1-Tests performed on influenza vaccine loss..... 103 104 Table 3-Chicken cell agglutination (CCA) test results..... Table 4-Hemagglutinin content of A/New Jersey component of influenza vaccines as determined by immunoelectrophoresis...... 106 Table 5-Amount of vaccine as of December 16, 1976 Testing and distribution chart by doses and week ending Letter dated October 4, 1977, from Chairman Rogers to Secretary Califano re additional written questions with subsequent replies dated October 17, and December 13, 1977.... National influenza immunization program vaccine contract and insurance costs 105 107 108 354 Signing of letter contracts, with attachments pertaining to 1. tax Justice Department: Attachments to Mr. Peterson's prepared statement: Claims received at Department of Justice List of suits...... Correspondence between Chairman Rogers and the Department of Letter dated December 13, 1977, from Irwin Goldbloom, Deputy Assis- Letter dated December 16, 1977, from Barbara Allen Babcock, Assis- National Association of County Health Officials (NACHO), attachment to 66 Public Citizen's Health Research Group, Anita Johnson and Sidney Wolfe, 493 Appendix—““The Swine Flu Program: An Unprecedented Venture in Preventive Medicine," report to the Congress by the Comptroller General of the United States-June 27, 1977 ORGANIZATIONS REPRESENTED AT HEARINGS Aetna Life & Casualty, William O. Bailey, president. American Home Products Corp., Charles F. Hagan, general counsel. American Insurance Association, T. Lawrence Jones, president. Page 501 Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), Douglas S. Lloyd, M.D. Chubb & Son, Inc., Henry U. Harder, president. General Accounting Office: Ahart, Gregory J., Director, Human Resources Division. Burnett, Michael, Supervisory Auditor. Oswald, Peter, Supervisory Auditor. Health, Education, and Welfare Department: Bradford, Windell, Administrative Assistant to Dr. Millar, Bureau of State Services, Center for Disease Control, Public Health Service. Jordan, William, M.D., National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Meyer, Harry M., Jr., M.D., Director, Bureau of Biologics, Food and Drug Administration. Millar, J. Donald, M.D., Director, Bureau of State Services, Center for Disease Control, Public Health Service. Justice Department: Goldbloom, Irwin, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division. Peterson, Neil R., Assistant Chief, Torts Section, Civil Division. Merck & Co., Inc.: Abramson, Clarence A., senior counsel. Hendrickson, Robert F., vice president, operations, Merck Sharp & Dohme Division. Merrell-National Laboratories, Frederick D. Lamb, vice president and legal counsel. National Association of County Health Officials (NACHÓ): Elsea, William R., M.D., vice president. Gemmell, Mike, legislative representative. Warner-Lambert Co. (Parke-Davis), Frank Markoe, Jr., vice chairman, Board of Directors. United States Conference of City Health Officers, Richard M. Biery, M.D. |