Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with epidemiologist Richard Wenzel about a 1976 swine flu outbreak in the United States -- and how the fight to contain and treat it then compares with authorities are facing today. Dr. Wenzel diagnosed some of the earliest swine flu cases in 1976.
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI's THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI's THE WORLD is the program audio.
LISA MULLINS: Now back to March 25th, 1976.
GERALD FORD: I am asking the congress to appropriate 135 million dollars prior to their April recess for the production of sufficient vaccine to inoculate every man, woman, and child in the United States.
MULLINS: That is President Gerald Ford speaking thirty three years ago. Richard Wenzel diagnosed some of the earliest swine flu cases of that outbreak in 1976. He is an epidemiologist who now chairs the Virginia Commonwealth University's Department of Internal Medicine. He is now in Richmond Virginia. Dr. Wenzel what happened in 1976?
RICHARD WENZEL: Well, it was a large cluster of infections at Fort Dix, a military training facility in New Jersey. Specifically 230 soldiers became ill. Thirteen developed severe respiratory distress and one soldier died. Then a number of people who were involved in health policy advised then President Ford to advocate for a strong national program of swine flu vaccination.
MULLINS: This was kind of a preemptive strike against the spread of the flu?
WENZEL: Immediately after the outbreak, I mean, President Ford who was a very credible voice then advocated for widespread vaccine and authorized the funding for that. Two things really happened that were unexpected: the swine flu epidemic never materialized, and the vaccine unexpectedly caused a seven fold increase in neurologic side effects leading to weakness and paralysis, the Guillain Barre Syndrome. There were more deaths to the vaccine than, obviously to the epidemic which never materialized.
MULLINS: What are the lessons that you believe we can learn from what happened in 1976? Obviously things were quite different then more than thirty years ago. Airline travel was more of a luxury. I wonder if that helped contain the disease and what else you can extract from your experience then.
WENZEL: I think the biggest lesson is that there are a number of decision points that were bypassed in 1976. So, if you think that we need to get prepared for potential pandemic first you develop a vaccine. The next step would be, do we need to test it for safety? The third step would be, develop some vaccine to being to have it available. The fourth step would be to have a major development of a vaccine for widespread use in the population in the country. And the fifth step, importantly, would be, now we drop the flag and deploy it. And we went from a threat and a localized cluster of infections and a single death to deployment without any of those other intervening pauses and decision nodes.
MULLINS: And how about in terms of the White House response back in ‘76 compared to now? Was the US as open about potential pandemics such as this?
WENZEL: Well, I think in general there was a lot more acceptance of authority in 1976 and a credible figure in Gerald Ford. I think today in the sort of postmodern social era there's a lot more skepticism, a lot more individual decision making, and a lot less acceptance of authoritative statements.
MULLINS: I wonder if that, we're hearing about Cuba today canceling some of the flights from Mexico. There's a lot of air traffic that goes between the two countries. I wonder if the more authoritarian the government in a particular country the better and quicker the reaction?
WENZEL: Well, there is something to be said to that. Back to SARS just a few years ago, Singapore had a rapid and rigid response to the outbreak and, of course, they put people very quickly in airports with sensors. If anyone had a fever and was traveling, you could be arrested if there were certain breaches. So, there is some advantages in authoritarian governments.
MULLINS: Alright, thank you for your help. Dr. Richard Wenzel is the chairman of Virginia Commonwealth University's Department of Internal Medicine. He diagnosed some of the earliest swine flu cases during the 1976 outbreak. By the way, Dr. Wenzel how did you stay safe?
WENZEL: Believe it or not I received the vaccine, of course, like every other American, more or less, at that time.
MULLINS: How'd you do with it?
WENZEL: Fortunately I did fine. Glad to say.
MULLINS: Alright, thank you again Dr. Wenzel, very nice to have you on.
transcript