Health officials generally pleased with H1N1 response

SALT LAKE CITY — A recent Wall Street Journal story, headlined "The flu season that fizzled," made Dr. David Sundwall's blood boil.

As director of the Utah Department of Health, he felt the headline grossly mischaracterized the reality of the H1N1 pandemic that caused him and other health officials nationwide to grow some gray hair.

The bulk of the story was well done, he said, but the "fizzled" part prompted his letter to the editor, which was published a few days later.

"I was a bit annoyed they didn't acknowledge that, nationwide, the public health system stepped up to the challenge," he said. "Aside from promises by vaccine manufacturers (of speedy delivery) that annoyed people, I think we did a good job."

Daily life is different in Utah than it was a year ago, he said, and much of that credit goes to the public education campaign run by state and local health officials. "You can't go anywhere without hand sanitizers being apparent. There were a lot of things people did, like social distancing: staying away from church and work if they were ill," some of which may continue in social practice.

"The message got across, and that's why we didn't see a more severe impact."

He acknowledges the virus "wasn't as deadly as the one we were preparing for," but he takes pride in the fact that, according to modeling estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "more than 70 percent of Utahns are now immune to the H1N1 virus."

That's based on the fact that health officials here vaccinated almost 25 percent of the state, with more than 925,000 doses of vaccine administered. Sundwall said that's "an enormous accomplishment," based on a national vaccination rate of 19 percent.

Yet, "we don't want to pat ourselves on the back too much for having had a lot of sick people," said Dr. Andrew Pavia, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Utah who leads the pandemic flu task force for the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

"The bulk of protection here came from the fact that it was so prevalent," Pavia said. "That's the biggest single contributor to immunity, followed by use of vaccine."

While studies are underway to determine why the virus impacts some people more virulently than others, those who got sick enough to require critical care included disproportionately high numbers of Hispanics and Pacific Islanders, many of whom were young and had no medical insurance, according to Dr. Russell Miller.