Public Values and Public Failure: Implications of the 2004-2005 Flu Vaccine Case

Abstract

The public interest should be the center of policy analytical frameworks. This study applies a public values framework to the 2004-2005 influenza vaccine shortage. It illustrates the potential for infusing public values in analysis of policy controversies, something that has been marginalized in recent years. The public values approach leads to a quite different, and preferable, focus on policy analysis and forecasting compared to predominant economic thinking, especially market failure criteria. The vaccine shortage case is especially apt inasmuch as relatively few of the determinants pertained to economic forces or market factors. Public health is a classic instance of public goods, perhaps even more so than defense and national security because the level of threat to one is in large measure a function of the threat to others.

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