Las Vegas Sun

November 16, 2009

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Editorial: Sickly plans to deal with a flu outbreak

Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2000 | 9:11 a.m.

The scarcity of flu vaccines this year is especially worrisome for those at risk of a serious illness or death from influenza. A recent General Accounting Office report won't offer much comfort to other Americans, either, since the GAO contends that the nation isn't prepared to respond if a killer strain of influenza were to strike.

Federal and state governments in 1993 started to come up with plans to reduce the kind of pandemic that struck worldwide in 1918, killing more than 20 million people. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told USA Today that the nation is better prepared than it was two years ago. Still, this year's vaccine shortage shows that the United States has a long way to go before it's adequately prepared for a serious outbreak of influenza.

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