Gorilla success

accused Labour of exploiting the virus for political ends,” said the Daily Mail (31 December). “He rejected claims by Shadow Health Secretary John Healey that the government had cancelled a flu jab plan for under-fives to save money.” Meanwhile, as The Guardian reported on the same day, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley had reinstated a “Catch It, Bin It, Kill It” advertising campaign. “It had been discontinued despite helping educate the public to adopt good hygiene habits during last year’s H1N1 swine flu epidemic at a cost of just £609,000. He has been criticised for not instigating the campaign to urge everyone at risk to get a seasonal flu jab from their GP, and for not ensuring that all under-fives are offered the vaccine.” On 1 January The Independent reported experts as saying that “it could be too late for those still unprotected against swine flu to gain maximum benefit from the vaccination...Latest figures show that the number of casualties with flu in intensive care has risen to 738, a 60% rise on last week. The total is now four times greater than the peak during last year’s pandemic, and international evidence suggests that 10–15% of those in intensive care may die...The jab takes seven days to produce partial immunity and two to three weeks to provide maximum protection.” The Daily Mail (1 January) highlighted another dimension to the problem. “Doctors have run out of flu jabs amid one of the worst outbreaks of the illness in more than a decade,” it reported. “Many surgeries failed to order sufficient doses earlier this winter and some admit they have no idea when extra supplies will arrive.” The strongest criticism came from the Sunday Express (2 January): “Our inability to deal with the current flu outbreak is a disgrace. Flu strikes most winters so why have we been caught napping? The worst affected of the illness can be prevented by vaccination so why weren’t all those most at risk, the elderly, asthmatic and mothers-to be, given jabs earlier?” the paper said in an editorial. “This is a tragedy that should have been averted.”