It was the year of America’s Bicentennial. 1976 was also a presidential election year, two years after the Watergate scandal saw Nixon resign to avoid impeachment, and one year after the humiliating fall of Saigon. Both Republican and Democratic administrations had got bogged down in the quagmire the prolonged Vietnam War turned out to be; in the eyes of the American public, the politicians of both parties were deservedly in the dog-house.

So it couldn’t have happened at a worse time. Or a better one for discredited politicians wallowing in the doldrums, yet keenly alive to the exploitative potential in tragic occurrences, whether natural or otherwise.

In January 1976, 19-year-old Army Private David Lewis, though having a touch of flu, decided to join his platoon in Fort Dix on a 50-mile hike through the New Jersey snow. Thirteen miles into the trek he collapsed, and died shortly after. Considering his age and since he was known to be generally of good health, his death was cause for concern, especially to the staff of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Blood tests by CDC established that Lewis’ immune system had antibodies for a strain of swine flu similar to the 1918 Spanish influenza which caused the worst human pandemic of the 20th century, with at least 22 million deaths within months and over one billion people ill in every country in the world. The CDC harboured fears that Lewis’ death marked the arrival of another lethal strain of the swine flu virus, even a repeat of 1918.

Why?

Patrick Di Justo, writing on the Salon website, explained that the influenza virus’ genetic code consists of several helices of RNA. Since RNA genes mutate easily, each new flu season brought a slightly different form of the disease. Fortunately, most year-to-year mutations produced little change, but for some still unknown reason, the virus seemed to undergo a significant genetic change every ten years or so, as was evident in the major epidemics of 1938, 1947, 1957 and 1968.

Swine flu which, as the name implies, is endemic to pigs, is considered a more deadly form of the influenza virus, and is believed to have a 60-year mutation cycle. Both the 10- and 60-year cycles of the two different strains were due to converge in the mid-1970s; Lewis’ death in 1976 was hence feared to herald a deadly re-run of the 1918 pandemic.

By the end of January ‘76, however, it was clear that the virus wasn’t spreading, being limited to the soldiers in Lewis’ camp. Strangely, though, this reassuring information didn’t seem to satisfy the medics at CDC; on February 14, 1976, the Centre notified all hospitals in the US to be on the alert for cases of swine flu.

By March that year - the normal end of flu season - not one case of swine flu had been reported outside of Fort Dix. But inexplicably even this welcome development did not placate the watchdogs. On March 13 the Director of the CDC asked Congress for money to develop and test enough swine flu vaccine to immunize at least 80 percent of the population of the United States, the minimum needed to ward off an epidemic.

Both Republicans and Democrats jumped on the bandwagon in an instant. Here was an opportunity - whether God-given or Corporate-propelled being irrelevant - to show the citizenry that politicians, contrary to popular belief, did have the people’s welfare at heart, and that cost would not erode their resolve to safeguard public health.

The vaccine request reached the President’s desk, via the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, within a week. On March 24, the day after he lost the North Carolina primary to Ronald Reagan, President Gerald Ford welcomed the top virologists in the nation to a meeting in the White House, wrote Di Justo. All agreed mass vaccination was necessary.

After a much-publicised press conference with Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, developers of the polio vaccine, Ford asked Congress for $135 million to develop a vaccine to counter the impending swine flu plague, probably the first time most of the public heard of swine flu. With few exceptions, Congress promptly supported the bill. Ford signed it on April 15, 1976 and announced the immunization program would begin in October.

Scientific certainty of a pandemic seemed by now on shaky ground, because flu virus extracted from Private Lewis was found to be much less virulent that the 1918 strain. The World Health Organization, while urging a global alert, did not recommend mass immunization of the population.

Politicians, however, know a good thing when they see it. Congress began pushing drug companies to quickly develop a swine flu vaccine. The drug companies discerned a window of opportunity in the politicians’ urgency and suggested that they could work faster if given immunity from lawsuits in the event something went wrong with the vaccine. Congress refused. The issue of legal liability remained at an impasse until August 2, 1976, when press reports that day of two deaths from a strange," respiratory disease caused panic in Congress. Complete indemnity was offered next day, and accepted.

When, on August 5, the head of the CDC testified before Congress that the two deaths on August 2 were from a new strain of pneumonia, not swine flu, Congress revoked the indemnity; the drug firms not only stopped work on the vaccine but also hinted that, even if re-indemnified, they wanted Congress to guarantee them reasonable profits from the development of the vaccine.

President Ford went on the offensive - but not against Big Pharma. In a speech to the nation on TV, he held Congress to blame for any deaths from swine flu. Congress caved in, and on August 15 Ford signed the National Influenza Immunization Program (NIIP) which covered at least 80 percent of the population, indemnified the drug companies and left vague the government’s power to limit their profit.

Between October 1st and 11th 1976, approximately 40 million people had been immunized, mostly through the new compressed air vaccination guns. On the 11th evening, in Pittsburgh, three senior citizens died soon after the swine flu shots.

The media outcry linked - without proof - the deaths to the immunizations, prompting that iconic CBS news anchorman, Walter Cronkite, to rebuke colleagues of the dangers of post hoc ergo propter hoc-thinking. (‘After this, therefore, because of this.’) The Government’s fear of mass panic about swine flu was now replaced by the reality of mass panic about swine flu vaccinations!

But worse was to follow. A few weeks later press reports of some of those immunized developing Guillain-Barre syndrome, a paralyzing neuromuscular disorder, stopped the program dead in its tracks. Noted Di Justo: "The public refused to trust a government-operated health program that killed old people and crippled young people; less than 33 percent of the population had been immunized when the Program was effectively halted on December 16."

Politician Gerald Ford’s surreptitious attempt to regain credibility and perhaps popularity for keeping America safe became one more disaster to be added to the Watergate debacle, a Presidential exit in disgrace and America’s humiliating defeat in Saigon. Not surprisingly, Ford lost the presidential election to Democrat Jimmy Carter that November. The 1976 / 1977 flu season was most notable for the affliction’s relative absence since records were maintained.