Last year’s fungal meningitis outbreak was a nightmare for Tennesseans. Our state alone suffered 152 cases, including 15 deaths.
The tragedy would have been much worse if not for the heroism of state officials with the Department of Health who discovered the problem and helped to identify the cause. Their work prevented more people from getting sick and saved countless lives.
Last week, the Senate’s health committee completed work on legislation I sponsored to try to make sure this never happens again. The next step is consideration by the full Senate.
I believe most of the problem with the meningitis outbreak was a lack of clear accountability for regulating the large Massachusetts pharmacy that compounded (or mixed) the tainted drugs. There was confusion between the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Massachusetts pharmacy board over who was responsible for overseeing businesses that functioned in between a traditional corner drug store and a drug manufacturer.
The primary goal of our legislation is to erase that confusion. My experience as governor was that whenever I gave a job to more than one person, it often came back not done. But when I put one person “on the flagpole” and in charge, it was surprising to see how assigning responsibility got it done.
Adm. Hyman Rickover, the father of the nuclear Navy, told his submarine captains that if anything went wrong with the ship’s reactor, the captain’s career was over. As a result, there never has been a death from a problem with a Navy submarine reactor
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