Loraine Roberts

Pre-pandemic Immunization: Are You Ready?

"Neither physicians nor medicines were effective [against the Bubonic Plague]. Whether because these illnesses were previously unknown or because physicians had not previously studied them, there seemed to be no cure. There was such a fear that no one seemed to know what to do. When it took hold in a house it often happened that no one remained who had not died. ...And almost none, or very few, who showed these symptoms, were cured."-Marchione di Coppo Stefani. This quote raises some interesting questions. What would happen if another Influenza Pandemic occurred right now? As in this instant, would you or your family be protected? These are the questions Klaus Stohr, a former member of the World Health Organization (WHO) and author of “Vaccinate before the next Pandemic?” hope to further investigate. He proposes a new method that will allow people to get immunized with pandemic-type viruses before the strike of another pandemic. Seems like a great idea, but researchers are not certain as to what strain of virus will cause the next outbreak. The author of “Stockpiling Pre-pandemic Influenza Vaccines: A New Cornerstone of Pandemic Preparedness Plans” claims that producing a vaccine that will match a particular virus strain is difficult and cannot be done until a pandemic virus generates. Klaus Stohr likes his idea better but does not dismiss the fact that it has some serious flaws mentioned by the authors of “Stockpiling Pre-Pandemic Influenza vaccines…”. Both of the articles acknowledge that something must be done to prepare for a possible pandemic outbreak but Klaus Stohr takes a hasty approach with the issue, saying that people should get immunized with pandemic-type viruses as soon as possible in hopes of reducing the effect of another pandemic strike while the other authors are more cautious; focusing on researching the virus and creating an outline of steps to take in case another pandemic hits.

Klaus Stohr discusses the benefits of Pre-pandemic Immunization. These include decreasing the demand for vaccines if a pandemic was to strike, hindering the spread of the virus, and helping underdeveloped countries who have a limited supply of vaccines. To reduce cost, he suggests that we include the pre-pandemic immunization with the current seasonal vaccine. Not only that, he also states that vaccinating twenty percent of the population would be just as effective as vaccinating sixty percent if a pandemic occurred because it is unlikely that individuals would pass the virus on to others. His concern is safety but luckily data from the European Medicines Agency reported that “ 42 million Europeans were vaccinated with one of the pandemic vaccines and that the side effects were no different than a regular flu vaccine”. The author provides some valid facts but they do not compensate for the fact that researchers could predict the wrong virus strain and would therefore be wasting millions of dollars on an ineffective drug.

The authors of “Stockpiling Pre-pandemic influenza vaccines: A New Cornerstone of Pandemic Preparedness Plans” focus on the unpredictability of the next pandemic. The authors state that it is unclear when the next pandemic will occur; therefore making vaccines for an unknown event would be wasteful. Another big problem mentioned is that the specific viral strain is unknown. This is because mutation is always occurring within the virus. The authors of this article discuss a method that could be employed to prepare for the next pandemic which includes the WHO action plan: to increase the production of seasonal Influenza vaccine, do more research on influenza, and improve the current vaccine to promote longer immune responses. This plan would minimize the possible shortcomings of vaccines if a pandemic was to hit.

Both of the articles provide good support for their stance on Pre-pandemic immunization. Personally, I agree with the second article because instead of creating a vaccine that could possibly be wrong, it takes a more rational approach by recommending that more research be done on the disease and improvement be made to the current vaccine in order to better prepare for what could be a disaster. The first article is important to consider but it’s just too improbable.


Stohr, Klaus. “Vaccinate before the next Pandemic?”.Nature.com.12 May 2010
Lance C Jennings, Arnold S Monto, Paul K S Chan, Thomas D Szucs, Karl G Nicholson. “Stockpiling Prepandemic Influenza vaccines: a new cornerstone of pandemic preparedness plans”. Thelancetconferences.com. Oct. 2008
http://www.thelancetconferences.com/asia-flu/pdfs/stockpiling.pdf
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v465/n7295/full/465161a.html http://www.insecta-inspecta.com/fleas/bdeath/Quotes.html
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Health+Canada+takes+word+others+H1N1+vaccine+safe/2146715/story.html Andreas Rentz, Getty Images