Rep. Henry A. Waxman

While no one has yet suggested that the Bush Administration deliberately allowed Chiron Corporation's Liverpool, England, U.K., flu shot factory to slip between the bio-bureaucratic cracks and then crash and burn on October 5, 2004, when Britain's Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) shut it down, thereby cutting in half the U.S. flu vaccine supply right before the start of the flu season, creating a national and many local shortages, price gouging, thefts of vaccine, a classic "black market," in flu vaccine, and a general public perception of a crisis in order to bolster its case for "medical tort reform" and its attacks on "trial lawyers," neither has the incumbent Republican government in Washington, D.C., and especially its Food and Drug Administration (FDA), been very cooperative, forthright, or expeditious in releasing important documents about its role in "FluGate"® to Congressmember Henry Waxman (D-CA), the ranking Democratic member of the U.S. Congress' House Government Reform Committee, nor has it yet replied to Etopia Media Medical News Network (EMMNN)'s request today for information about its reluctance to provide the requested documents to Representative Waxman and his House colleagues in the minority on that Congressional oversight committee, or to the public through either of these means.

On Friday, October 22, 2004, Representative Waxman sent a letter to Rep. Tom Davis, the Republican Chair of the House Committee on Government Reform, which is the primary committee in the House of Representatives for the oversight of government agencies.

In that letter, Rep. Waxman wrote: "What is happening is obvious. The Administration is trying to delay the release of the vaccine until after the election." He concludes his communication with the committee chair by saying "Given the Administration's refusal to cooperate voluntarily, we have only one option: you should use the Committee's subpoena power to ensure that the documents we have jointly sought are turned over as quickly as possible."

The documents in question not having been produced, Rep. Waxman today sent a letter to Lester Crawford, the Acting Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, in which he tells the head of the FDA:

"According to a confidential communication I have received from inside the Food and Drug Administration, your office is withholding documents from Congress, the news media, and the public that address whether the flu vaccine crises could have been prevented."

After recounting various allegations regarding a cover-up of pertinent documents relating to the de-certification of the Chiron Corporation flu shot factory in Liverpool, England, U.K., Representative Waxman concludes by saying;

"If the confidential communication I received is mistaken, I would appreciate a prompt clarification in writing. Otherwise, I urge you to immediately provide the documents in your possession, as well as copies of the e-mails relating to their transmittal to your office."

Etopia Media Medical News Network contacted the FDA this morning, spoke to a press spokesperson, sent them, as requested, an e-mail with links to the letters from Representative Waxman referred to above, and told them: "I look forward to hearing from you and to setting up an opportunity for FDA to express its views on this important issue."

You can now add Etopia Media Medical News Network to the list, which already includes Representative Waxman, the House Committee on Government Reform Minority, the rest of the media, and the American people, of those who are waiting to hear from FDA on the subject of what they knew and when they knew it about the flu vaccine fiasco in Liverpool.