Pride Above Polio

From scare headlines and angry editorials, Britons generally learned last week what their doctors had known for months : the nation's vaccination program against poliomyelitis is a dismal flop. With this year's number of polio cases (2,700 so far) reported mounting rapidly toward what might well prove to be the highest figures ever, vaccinations were hopelessly behind schedule. There was no chance that the program could catch up unless it got a shot in the arm with massive imports of U.S. vaccine -- and these the Ministry of Health flatly refused to consider.

It was Coventry, famed for Lady Godiva and the World War II blitz, that put the British polio picture in focus. With 87 cases in a population of 267,000, it was not the worst-hit city -- Maidstone (pop. 55,000) had at least as many cases, and Lincoln (pop. 70,000) had 83. But Coventry's plight was clearest on the record. In July, with 54 cases logged, Coventry had received only enough vaccine to inoculate half the 14,000 top-priority children (aged three to nine) who had registered for shots. The Ministry of Health refused more vaccine. Reason: there was no stockpile to draw from, and vaccine would continue to be dribbled out to all regions, whether or not polio had broken out, on a "fair-shares-for-all" basis. When a public-spirited businessman offered to buy U.S. vaccine, he was denied permission to import it.

Some Britons (especially physicians) with U.S. connections are getting "unsolicited gifts" of American vaccine for their children. More U.S. vaccine is being smuggled in, sold on the black market. The Sunday Express asked angrily: "Why did the Ministry refuse to import the Salk vaccine offered by America [4,000,000 cc., offered last winter]? How can they pretend it is unsafe, yet at the same time allow the privileged few to accept presents of the vaccine from American friends?"

Trouble was that of two firms licensed to make Britain's own modified Salk vaccine, only one had got into production, and this was far behind schedule. But the Ministry stuck to its guns, insisted that British vaccine is safer and more effective than the American.* British critics of the Ministry felt that it had put national pride above the welfare of polio victims in 1957. It was a good bet that with home-grown supplies still lagging, Britain would be importing straight Salk vaccine from the U.S. or Canada in time for next year's polio season.

Although the U.S. so far has had a good polio year (TIME, Aug. 12), there were also complaints about the vaccination program. The U.S. Public Health Service last week got a slap on the wrist from the House Committee on Government Operations investigating the vaccine situation. Charged a committee report: PHS was guilty of "unimaginative leadership" and lack of effectiveness in last year's polio-vaccination program and paid too much for vaccine--possibly because the manufacturers had got together to fix prices, a matter now under grand-jury investigation.

*The British vaccine differs from the U.S. chiefly in not using the virulent Mahoney strain to immunize against Type 1 polio infections. It substitutes a less virulent strain of the same type.

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