Is the Bird Flu Vaccine Ineffective?

The Effect Measure blog, by public health specialist "Revere," reports this interesting perspective on the $1.2 billion the Bush administration wants to spend on H5N1 vaccines (see my previous post):

"There is no vaccine yet. The experimental batch that went through clinical trials a few months ago showed itself unable to protect people unless unrealistically high doses were used. And the strain it was directed against has already changed, so the best one could hope for would be some residual cross protection."

$1.2 billion for that while state public health agencies, who could really do something to protect the public by rapidly identifying and isolating initial cases, gets a few measly millions while being asked to subsidize the purchase of vaccines? It looks like the Katrina responders are still in charge.