Army vaccines cut by half

The Defense Ministry has denied its retreat on compulsory swine-flu vaccinations for the entire armed forces is "related" to comments made by President Václav Klaus.

Under the Constitution, the president, though commander-in-chief, does not have the power to order or instruct the army in matters related to health and safety, according to Radek Lopata, an attorney with Giese & Partners in Prague.

"In terms of health issues, the Defense Ministry is the sole authority for the armed forces," Lopata said after reviewing the Constitution.

"Even in deploying troops for a military operation or emergency, the president, while commander-in-chief, does not have the sole right to issue orders," he added. "Any order for deployment must be co-signed by the prime minister or defense minister after a vote in Parliament authorizing the operation."

Klaus spoke out forcefully against government plans to vaccinate all members of the army against swine flu, calling the step extremely "controversial, if not unacceptable."

After the president spoke, the Defense Ministry announced a change in policy in which half of the armed forces (about 8,000) would be vaccinated instead of the full 16,000 members of the military.

A ministry spokeswoman said Defense Minister Martin Barták had met with Klaus and "takes him seriously." However, she told The Prague Post, "there is no direct relation" between Klaus' comments and the ministry's retreat.

The government decided Jan. 11 that the armed forces should be vaccinated against swine flu, but Klaus spoke out Jan. 27, saying members of the armed forces should not be viewed as an "experimental sample" and called for Barták to reconsider.

"I consider the compulsory vaccination of soldiers and civilian employees against pandemic flu, especially now, extremely controversial, if not unacceptable," Klaus said.

"It would be justifiable in an acute epidemic situation, but we are clearly not in such a situation. My civic opinion is enforced by the health risks of being vaccinated, which have led to public disagreement among our health professionals. Soldiers cannot be regarded as an experimental sample upon whom vaccinations tests can be practiced without their consent. Therefore, I call on the defense minister and the chief of general staff of the army to consider whether the decision on vaccination should not be left up to individual soldiers."

Klaus also controversially demanded, after meeting with Prime Minister Jan Fischer Jan. 29, that the Cabinet get vaccinated on live TV and that he would not get vaccinated unless ordered to do so. He went on to compare swine flu to another favorite topic of his.

"This swine flu is the same bubble as global warming. It is not necessary for me to become a guinea pig."

"Before the government dares to order anyone a mandatory vaccination, all 17 members of the Cabinet should get vaccinated before your eyes and TV cameras. That would be proof the government takes it seriously. If your government does not get vaccinated, then I think they should not impose it on anyone," he said.

High-profile victim

In a strange twist, Michael Vít, the chief public health officer, believes he has probably fallen victim to swine flu.

 Vít told reporters he had a high fever and that he was vaccinated against ordinary flu but not swine flu despite the government's advice to the public to get vaccinated.

"In all probability, it will be A/H1N1,'' he said.'

The retreat came as the Council of Europe questioned whether the global response to swine flu was driven by pharmaceutical companies. Czech officials insist they did not order too many vaccines.

The Czech Republic ordered 100,000 vaccinations for targeted patients and frontline healthcare workers, but, by their own figures, the country has not seen the disease spread to epidemic levels as anticipated.

An epidemic is defined as 2 percent of the population showing signs of infection. In the Czech Republic, that would mean 200,000 people becoming infected. To date, there have been 95 deaths due to swine flu out of 2,381 confirmed cases. The number of people vaccinated stands at 57,194. An additional 16,000 vaccines were to go toward inoculating soldiers.

The World Health Organization's (WHO) links to drug companies were questioned at a hearing Jan. 26 by the Council of Europe's Health Committee. The Committee was concerned that a pandemic had been rashly declared to the benefit of pharmaceutical companies.

Czech health officials insist there has been no over-reaction to the swine flu and said authorities here had acted "conservatively."

France ordered 94 million swine flu vaccine doses - more than one for every French person.

"We ordered only 1 million vaccines for a population of 10 million," said Vlastimil Sršeň, spokesman for the Health Ministry. "The Czech Republic acted quite conservatively compared with other countries."

When a pandemic was declared last June, most European countries changed their health priorities to accommodate thousands of anticipated patients, and spent millions of euros on vaccines.

A WHO flu expert denied there had been improper influence from drug firms.

- Klára Jiřičná contributed to this report.

Tom Clifford can be reached at
tclifford@praguepost.com