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American Morning
Interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci
Aired December 11, 2003 - 07:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: With an outbreak of flu sweeping the country, the CDC is dealing with a severe shortage of a flu vaccine.
A few minutes ago, I talked with Dr. Anthony Fauci from the National Institutes of Health about how concerned Americans should be.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: We certainly need to take influenza seriously, because it's a serious disease, and we're in the process of what looks like is going to be a bad year. But certainly people should not panic. One should say attuned to the recommendations from the CDC. People who are within the high-risk categories that are designated by the CDC should get vaccinated.
There are reports, as you know and correct, of regionally at least in some areas, there's a shortage of vaccination, but the CDC is trying to take a look at redistribution of stores that might be OK in one area and not OK in one other.
So, you try to get vaccinated if you fall within the risk categories. And if you can't get vaccinated, then what you need to do is practice what we call respiratory hygiene or respiratory etiquette -- washing your hands, don't touch your face, nose or eyes. And if you're sick, in consideration for others, if you have a fever or what looks like a respiratory illness, don't go to work, don't go to school, don't go to a day care center. Those kinds of things are practical common sense things that we should adhere to.
HEMMER: Doctor, why is it that the U.S. has been hit so hard by this, this year?
FAUCI: You know, the one thing we in the public health sector have known for decades is that Influenza is a very unpredictable disease. It's predictable in the sense that you know every year you're going to get influenza, but how it approaches, whether it's the West or the Midwest or the Northeast, whether it's going to be here versus Europe or both, it's just quite unpredictable. And that's the reason why we need to be vigilant all the time for influenza.
You know, influenza each year in a regular year kills 36,000 people in the United States and puts 114,000 in the hospital. So, it's serious, but it has many aspects of it that are unpredictable.
HEMMER: One thing that has a lot of people concerned is the Fujian strain that was not detected, let's say, four, six months ago... FAUCI: Right.
HEMMER: ... as the vaccine build-up was beginning in this country. How is it that that strain can slip through?
FAUCI: Well, it isn't like it's slipping through. Back last year in January and February, it was clear that there were Fujian strains circulating. And generally, you would want to get that into the vaccine. But this particular strain had some difficulty in growing up in the media in which you make vaccines.
So, when the drop dead time came for the decision of going ahead to making vaccines, which takes a lead time of at least six to eight months, the decision had to be made. Since this was not growing well enough in the egg cultures that are needed for the development of a vaccine, we had to go ahead without it.
So, it isn't that it slipped through. It was really a technical issue of not being able to produce it rapidly enough to get into the vaccine for that year.
HEMMER: Doctor, two quick questions. How young is too young to get a flu shot?
FAUCI: Well, you cannot get vaccinated if you're less than 6 months old.
HEMMER: OK.
FAUCI: Of you're 6 months old or older and you fall into those risk categories, you can get vaccinated.
HEMMER: Should you still get a shot then if you've already had the flu this year?
FAUCI: Well, so many people don't know whether they've had the flu. There is confusion. Someone gets a cold, and they say they have the flu. To know it's the flu you need to do some specific diagnostic tests to determine. So, you just have had a cold, you should assume that you should get vaccinated anyway, because it's very likely that it was not the flu.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired December 11, 2003 - 07:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: With an outbreak of flu sweeping the country, the CDC is dealing with a severe shortage of a flu vaccine.
A few minutes ago, I talked with Dr. Anthony Fauci from the National Institutes of Health about how concerned Americans should be.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: We certainly need to take influenza seriously, because it's a serious disease, and we're in the process of what looks like is going to be a bad year. But certainly people should not panic. One should say attuned to the recommendations from the CDC. People who are within the high-risk categories that are designated by the CDC should get vaccinated.
There are reports, as you know and correct, of regionally at least in some areas, there's a shortage of vaccination, but the CDC is trying to take a look at redistribution of stores that might be OK in one area and not OK in one other.
So, you try to get vaccinated if you fall within the risk categories. And if you can't get vaccinated, then what you need to do is practice what we call respiratory hygiene or respiratory etiquette -- washing your hands, don't touch your face, nose or eyes. And if you're sick, in consideration for others, if you have a fever or what looks like a respiratory illness, don't go to work, don't go to school, don't go to a day care center. Those kinds of things are practical common sense things that we should adhere to.
HEMMER: Doctor, why is it that the U.S. has been hit so hard by this, this year?
FAUCI: You know, the one thing we in the public health sector have known for decades is that Influenza is a very unpredictable disease. It's predictable in the sense that you know every year you're going to get influenza, but how it approaches, whether it's the West or the Midwest or the Northeast, whether it's going to be here versus Europe or both, it's just quite unpredictable. And that's the reason why we need to be vigilant all the time for influenza.
You know, influenza each year in a regular year kills 36,000 people in the United States and puts 114,000 in the hospital. So, it's serious, but it has many aspects of it that are unpredictable.
HEMMER: One thing that has a lot of people concerned is the Fujian strain that was not detected, let's say, four, six months ago... FAUCI: Right.
HEMMER: ... as the vaccine build-up was beginning in this country. How is it that that strain can slip through?
FAUCI: Well, it isn't like it's slipping through. Back last year in January and February, it was clear that there were Fujian strains circulating. And generally, you would want to get that into the vaccine. But this particular strain had some difficulty in growing up in the media in which you make vaccines.
So, when the drop dead time came for the decision of going ahead to making vaccines, which takes a lead time of at least six to eight months, the decision had to be made. Since this was not growing well enough in the egg cultures that are needed for the development of a vaccine, we had to go ahead without it.
So, it isn't that it slipped through. It was really a technical issue of not being able to produce it rapidly enough to get into the vaccine for that year.
HEMMER: Doctor, two quick questions. How young is too young to get a flu shot?
FAUCI: Well, you cannot get vaccinated if you're less than 6 months old.
HEMMER: OK.
FAUCI: Of you're 6 months old or older and you fall into those risk categories, you can get vaccinated.
HEMMER: Should you still get a shot then if you've already had the flu this year?
FAUCI: Well, so many people don't know whether they've had the flu. There is confusion. Someone gets a cold, and they say they have the flu. To know it's the flu you need to do some specific diagnostic tests to determine. So, you just have had a cold, you should assume that you should get vaccinated anyway, because it's very likely that it was not the flu.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
