Prevention Matters

The Washington Post's Rob Stein writes: "Doctors, nurses and other health-care workers in Indiana and Tennessee will receive the first doses of swine flu vaccine Monday as the federal government launches the most ambitious vaccination campaign in U.S. history."

The campaign's goal is to inoculate at least half the U.S. population against the new H1N1 virus. The federal government has spent $2 billion to purchase about 250 million doses of vaccine and has pledged to buy enough to immunize every American if there is enough demand. But public opinion surveys indicate that Americans are undecided about the vaccine.