News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – A workshop summary released today by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) offers a wide range of observations and suggestions about what worked well and not so well during the pandemic H1N1 influenza vaccination campaign—a complex, months-long operation with a cast of thousands.

Editor's note: This story was revised Sep 1 to reflect a recent change in the Infectious Diseases Society of America's position on mandatory flu vaccination for healthcare workers.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials, in releasing today a blueprint for overhauling the nation's civilian biodefense program, called for increased government partnerships with the private sector and a number of innovative steps to boost the development of medical countermeasures (MCMs) that have little or no commercial market.

(CIDRAP News) – Over the next few months, the nation's healthcare providers will shift from giving the pandemic H1N1 vaccine to a seasonal flu vaccine that contains the new virus, which has federal officials grappling with how to transition from a massive vaccine monitoring effort to a likely more routine system for the seasonal version.