Want a poor turnout? Try scheduling a meeting for 8 a.m. on an August Saturday in lower Manhattan. A colleague and I went anyway to find out what the public would tell the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state/local governments about how they should approach the upcoming swine flu vaccination program. Less than half of the approximately 150 who had registered actually turned up, facilitators from the Keystone Center told us. But those who did experienced a productive and informative session.
 
The participants were told to assume that any vaccine program would be voluntary, that the severity of illness would likely be similar to what was observed in the spring, and that the safety of the vaccine would be similar to seasonal flu. The question posed was whether the U.S. government should pursue a “go-slow,” “full-throttle”, or a “moderate-effort”, for its swine flu vaccination program. There was support for all three options, with the majority leaning towards “full throttle”, if the flu becomes worse than expected, and toward “go slow” if it doesn’t. Alas, public health professionals must settle the question before those answers become clear.

There were a substantial group of people opposed to any vaccine—many seem to be organizing to attend these meetings across the country, according to the facilitator. But aside from that, the group was quite diverse, consisting largely of citizens recruited through local community and patient groups. Some voiced concerns about getting vaccines to historically underserved populations, and requiring healthcare workers to be vaccinated, while others displayed a profound distrust of government health authorities, drug companies, and the media.