Here's an article from "Medical News Today" which throws some light into what went wrong in the USA, compared to the UK, which used the same supplier which went toes up - Why did Chiron Flu Crisis Affect USA more than England?

"Last August UK officials, with the same information the US officials had, decided something had to be done in case the Chiron supplies, 14% of UK supplies, went belly up. The US officials decided to believe Chiron and gamble 48% of their supplies on an assurance that everything would turn out fine despite some worrying set backs.

"When October 5th arrived, the British authorities pulled the plug on the Chiron, Liverpool, supplies. US authorities were caught out - nothing had been done in advance, the country had allowed itself to get into this situation."

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A lot of the time when we talk about having flu, it's not flu at all, but a bad cold or something else. I had a dose of real flu at Christmas a few years ago, and it was exceedingly unpleasant, especially since it went through the rest of the family.

Ever since I've been sure to get my flu dose as soon as they start giving them out, and I haven't been brought down again.

I wrote a song about it, and I posted it on the Mudcat later - The Millennium Flu