It began at a US Army training base in New Jersey. In February 1976, several soldiers at Fort Dix fell ill with a previously unrecognized swine flu. None had been in contact with pigs, so human transmission was assumed. Testing revealed that the virus had spread to more than 200 recruits.
Urgent decisions were needed. Public health officials realized it might be possible to get a vaccine to the public by the end of the year if they acted fast. The pharmaceutical industry had just finished manufacturing vaccines for the normal flu seasons.
In March, President Ford announced a $137m (£67.5m in 1976) effort to produce a vaccine by the autumn. "Its goal was to immunize every man, woman and child in the US, and thus was the largest and most ambitious immunization program ever undertaken in the United States," wrote Imperato in a 2015
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