The ongoing story regarding the shortage of influenza vaccine has the pundits looking for the causes. Instapundit refers to a post from Kevin Drum that discounts liability lawsuits as the main reason. Professor Bainbridge covers the subject here
Polipundit then referred to a story from Frontpage magazine that stated
In the late 80’s a man from North Carolina who had received the vaccine got the flu. The strain he caught was one of the strains in that years vaccine made by a US company.What did he do? He sued and he won. He was awarded almost $5 million!
On the other hand, Snopes claims that this story is an urban legend.
the passage of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 eliminated most of those lawsuits through the creation of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), a no-fault compensation alternative to suing vaccine manufacturers and providers for people injured or killed by vaccines. According to a 2003 report by the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), "vaccine shortages do not appear to be liability related":
Unfortunately, Snopes does not have the whole story, since the Vaccine Injury Compensation program does not cover the influenza vaccine.
Vaccines covered under the program include those that protect against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), measles, mumps, rubella (German measles), and polio. The program continues to evolve consistent with medical science, and recently, HHS expanded coverage to four new vaccines: hepatitis B, varicella (chicken pox), Hemophilus influenzae type b, and rotavirus; pneumococcal vaccine will soon be covered, too.
Note that Hemophilus Influenzae type b is NOT the same as the most commonly known influenza or flu that afflicts the general population
The injury table for the program can be found in this link and it does not provide for compensation for injuries derived from the influenza vaccine. Thus, the Snopes article does not prove that that liability lawsuits have not driven the vaccine manufacturers away from manufacturing the influenza vaccine while other sources point to them as a significant factor affecting the cost of vaccine supply.
