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May 24, 2002
U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"Schumer Calls For Stockpiling Vaccines"
Associated Press (www.ap.org) (05/23/02); Adcox, Seanna
New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer called on the National Vaccine Advisory Committee to build a nationwide childhood vaccine stockpile in an effort to address vaccine supply shortages caused by a decrease or, in some cases, a cessation of production by drug companies. The committee is scheduled to meet in early June to issue recommendations including a stockpile after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided a list of eight of 11 children's vaccines that are in critical shortage and an offer of incentives to drug companies to continue producing vaccines. In New York, it was noted, the vaccine against tetanus and diphtheria and the MMR vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella are critically in short supply. Under the new bill, called the Childhood Vaccine Supply Act, co-sponsored by Schumer and Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), the secretary of health and human services would be directed to buy vaccines for a national stockpile.
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