Virologist: Overseas Production of Vaccines Makes U.S. Vulnerable to Pandemics
by DR. SUSAN BERRY
BREITBART.COM
31 Jan 2020
An internationally known virologist with a military background explained to Breitbart News the United States is vulnerable to potential pandemics due to production of vaccines overseas and a lack of interest in making significant changes to the National Pandemic Plan.
As the coronavirus continues to spread, Steven Hatfill, MD, a virologist with master’s degrees in microbial genetics, radiation biochemistry, and experimental pathology, said there are precautions the U.S. can take to improve its preparedness for a potential pandemic.
Hatfill does not put his faith in large bureaucratic organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO).
“The WHO are useless,” he told Breitbart News in a telephone interview. “These are the same people who gave us the 2014 Ebola pandemic. Absolutely useless. The bureaucrats are subject to the wishes of their subscribers – China puts pressure on them.”
“And they admit it. They admitted the other day that, yes, they delayed too long,” he said. “I don’t listen to anything they say.”
As Breitbart News reported Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus blamed “human error” for the U.N. agency’s initial decision to minimize the global threat of the deadly coronavirus.
For the U.S., Hatfill said the next seven to 14 days are critical.
“I had thought because we hadn’t had any new cases in the U.S. in days, my goodness, could we have dodged a bullet?” he continued. “And, now, we have a case in Chicago in the last couple of days.”
On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the first case of the coronavirus that has been transmitted from human to human in the U.S. in Chicago. The patient lives with a woman who had been diagnosed with the virus after she visited Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the infection.
Hatfill said one of the major problems for the U.S. is that vaccines used in this country are made overseas.
“Because it’s cheaper,” he said. “You think the British are going to give us a vaccine? Before they vaccinate their own people?”
Hatfill complimented President Donald Trump, however.
“The president is a smart cookie,” he observed. “Last year, he signed some legislation to bring domestic vaccine production back to the United States, realizing that this was a national security issue.”
In September 2019, Trump issued an executive order directing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to overhaul seasonal flu vaccine production.
The White House said in a statement:
Unfortunately, many of the vaccines we use today are produced overseas, using time-consuming, egg-based technology, which limits their effectiveness and makes production too slow to effectively combat a potential deadly influenza pandemic.
In addition to the U.S. making its own vaccines, Hatfill said there must be drastic changes to the National Pandemic Plan.
In November, 2019, Hatfill co-authored the book Three Seconds Until Midnight, with Robert Coullahan, CEM and John Walsh, Jr., Ph.D., that urged an effort to improve the National Pandemic Plan.
“A pandemic is nothing more than a series of local epidemics,” he told Breitbart News. “If a local community can handle its own epidemic, then a nation can handle its pandemic, with a little help.”
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