Dianavan,

the plug was pulled by the UK regulatory agency.
FDA was working with Chiron on some suspect batches of the vaccine. The UK announcement took even the FDA by surprise.

My wife is a microbiologist, and tells me that the bacteria found in some of the UNFINISHED lots is a common environmental organism. During the course of finishing a lot (that is, a specific batch) of drugs, the lot is sterilized. However, nobody's giving details, so I don't really understand what is going on.

As for politics--yes, this stuff was known back in August of this year, and nothing was done about it. After all, it's a Bad Thing when government tries to tell business what to do. Plus the Bush Administration and the Republican party were busy getting ready for the convention....

doug