Some 36,000 people in the United States died from the flu last year. That, in a year when vaccines were widely available. With the current vaccine shortage in the millions of doses, the number of deaths in the coming year will likely climb, but there’s no way to predict how high.

The British halted manufacture of vaccinations destined for the U.S. – products of the California-based Chiron Corp. – because of contamination, and the resulting vaccine shortage at the doorstep of the flu season has prompted the Bush administration to suggest that we may look to Canada to supply the needed drugs.

Say what?

The very administration that has flat-out resisted drug re-importation at every turn, arguing that we can’t guarantee the safety of every cholesterol-busting and pain-relieving pill that crosses the border, is considering importation of hundreds of thousands of doses of not-yet-FDA-approved vaccinations from Canada to satisfy market demand?

If the flu – which millions of Americans will get this year and most will survive after a week’s discomfort – can spur this kind of action, what about the demand of millions of patients with chronic illnesses, illnesses like diabetes, asthma and heart disease, that kill hundreds of thousands more Americans every year than the flu?

Prescriptions manufactured by American companies offer tremendously increased quality of life and lifesaving qualities to millions of people, but the cost we pay for these prescriptions is grotesque and getting worse.

Re-importation just makes sense.

If we can buy Canadian beer, Canadian sweaters and Canadian maple syrup in the U.S., we really ought to be able to buy Canadian drugs here, especially drugs that are manufactured by American-based companies and have passed the rigors of FDA approval pre-market.

We’re not suggesting that every pill on the market ought to stream across the border. The U.S. should absolutely balk at re-importation of drugs that have not received FDA approval. However, the crying demand for re-importation is to supply doses of common FDA-approved medicines taken by chronically ill Americans who cannot afford to buy them stateside.

If this country can entertain, even for a moment, the idea of importing flu vaccines, it can put re-importation policy on the table for reasoned discussion and implementation. Not just for the 36,000 people who may die of the flu this year, but for the hundreds of thousands more who will die from something else.