The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) Blog

POGO Presses DHHS to Answer Questions Instead of Dodging Them

In its letter today, POGO continued to push the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to release documents related to the pandemic flu vaccine.

Over the course of our recent correspondence, the Department has failed to address POGO's direct questions. Among these were questions about DHHS's plans for the online posting of contracts for vaccine production and its plans to post the evaluation of contractors' performance. This time we turned up the heat, bluntly telling Dr. Nicole Lurie, the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, that her reply to our recent inquiry constituted a "non-response response" that "combines, confuses, and fails to distinguish between four different kinds of documents."

We also reminded the Assistant Secretary about the March 2009 memo in which Attorney General Eric Holder urged agencies to release more information -- even urging them to post documents in advance of freedom-of-information requests by the public.

Perhaps the release of the DHHS's new Open Government Plan (due April 7), will give the agency reason to reconsider posting the contracts for vaccine production. In addition, DHHS should either post information about contractors' performance or else explain the legal basis for refusing to post this information.

POGO previously asked DHHS to make this and other information available in a letter sent on October 30, which you may read here.

-- Bryan Rahija

Time For DHHS to Open Up About H1N1 Vaccine Shortages

Last Friday, POGO renewed its calls for transparency in the government's H1N1 vaccine program. In a letter sent to Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, we urged the Secretary to make public several aspects of the program, which continues to suffer from shortages.  In brief:

The vaccine shortage may be an inevitable result of DHHS’s mistakes of the past. Those mistakes should be disclosed so they won’t be repeated. The lack of disclosure is a problem that is easy and inexpensive to fix.

Specifically, we argue that the Department should disclose:

• Contracts for vaccine production;
• The extent to which the program depends on foreign manufacturers and the justification for this dependence;
  
• Decisions that led to the delay in production of alternative vaccines

This of course is not the first time we have made these recommendations (see our letters to Secretary Sebelius in July, August, and September).  But after receiving a reply from DHHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Dr. Nicole Lurie, we felt obliged to reiterate our concerns.  Dr. Lurie affirmed the Department's commitment to transparency, but unfortunately, did not indicate any plans to address these key transparency issues.

-- Bryan Rahija

Further reading:

• POGO lays out the case for transparency when it comes to alternative vaccines, foreign manufacturers, and manufacturer contracts
• POGO expresses concern about the H1N1 vaccine program in July, August, and September letters to Secretary Sebelius
• DHHS response to POGO letters
• Compendium of POGO materials on H1N1 vaccine program

Flu Vaccine Shortage: It's Time to Explain Why It Happened

As reported in a variety of news outlets yesterday, the shortage of H1N1 flu vaccine has now become obvious. Throughout the country, many of those lining up to be vaccinated are being turned away. 

Why is vaccine in short supply? Explanations are emerging slowly from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was one of three cabinet officers testifying on October 21 before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. She blamed the shortage of vaccine in part on manufacturing delays, which she said have been corrected. 

She also confirmed that the U.S. is dependent on foreign manufacturers for much of its vaccine and said this country needs to enhance its domestic manufacturing capacity in the future. Several senators asked whether, during the present pandemic, supplies of vaccine we expect from abroad might instead be retained within their home countries. Secretary Sebelius responded that the U.S. is “at the front of the line” with orders it had placed with foreign manufacturers. However, she did not comment on the possibility, raised by committee chairman Joseph Lieberman, that the government of a foreign country might require its vaccine manufacturers to fill its own needs first. 

America’s dependence on foreign sources of vaccine is just one of many shortcomings that seriously detract from the strengths of the U.S. government’s program for producing vaccine in a pandemic. POGO – in letters to the Secretary of HHS, articles, and other public documents for more than 18 months – has urged a comprehensive disclosure of weaknesses in the vaccine program. Our documents identified specific weaknesses that could lead to a shortage of vaccine in a pandemic. 

On September 30, POGO sent its most recent letter, with an attached article, to Secretary Sebelius. In these documents and others linked to them we urge greater transparency in the vaccine program.

-- Ned Feder