Were they? I haven't seen any history on that one way or the other [checks wikipedia]...oh, they were! My guess is that it was because we had an established i

Were they? I haven't seen any history on that one way or the other [checks wikipedia]...oh, they were! My guess is that it was because we had an established infrastructure for making influenza vaccines in particular. Even then, the vaccine didn't appear in any quantity until almost the end of 1957, and the influenza was first seen in 1956.