Top Democrat says documents about vaccine shortage were withheld until election

• A senior House Democrat charged Tuesday that the Bush administration was refusing to release documents about the flu vaccine shortage until after the election.
• "What is happening is obvious," said Rep. Henry Waxman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Government Reform.
• "The administration is trying to delay the release of the vaccine documents until after the election.
• Waxman and Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, a Republican and chairman of the committee, asked the Food and Drug Administration two weeks ago for documents related to the vaccine shortage.
• Among them were reports and correspondence related to a 2003 inspection of Chiron Corp.'s flu vaccine plant in England.
• British health authorities temporarily shut down the plant this month because of contamination problems, which left the United States without nearly half of its supply for the coming flu season.
• Chiron is one of only two flu vaccine suppliers for the United States.
• In a statement, the acting FDA commissioner, Lester Crawford, said that Davis had assured him that taking more time to meet the document request would not slow the committee's investigation.
• He said the agency was "actively and diligently" trying to gather the documents.
• Robert White, a spokesman for Davis, said the chairman had given the FDA more time because the agency was busy trying to come up with more sources of vaccine.
• "Our priority now is public health, not election-year politics," White said.
• "He expects to receive all of the relevant material from the FDA in the very near future."