An influenza vaccine that really works would be a medical Something—interesting but improbable. This week the improbability became cold medical fact. In the Journal of the A.M.A. an Army commission on influenza announced that it had made the vaccine by growing influenza virus in fertile hens' eggs. One of the commission's members is Dr. Thomas Francis Jr., generally considered No. 1 U.S. influenza man.
After preliminary tests on some 200 inmates of the Ypsilanti (Mich.) State Hospital, a massive test was given last autumn to 12,500 people in eight U.S. areas. Half were vaccinated with small injections of virus inactivated by chemical...