The Flu Shot Conundrum

Kevin Drum, who's generally pretty reliably liberal, took a shot at trying to summarize the flu vaccine shortage. Very interesting conclusion:

The FDA has a famously tight regulatory regime, made even tighter in the late 90s, and as a result the United States has only two approved manufacturers of flu vaccine while Britain has half a dozen. (Although, ironically, it's worth noting that a breakdown of the regulatory regime seems to be a more likely explanation for Chiron's immediate problem.) The bottom line is that there are other flu vaccine manufacturers besides Chiron and Aventis, but they don't sell into the U.S. market because the cost of complying with FDA regulations is higher than the narrow profits they could expect to make from selling flu vaccine.

(hat tip: Instapundit). Drum is probably right, but why do I think we'll likely see more government regulation rather than less?