Going for A Much Lower Dosage

FACED WITH STRENUOUS OPPOSITION FROM THE DRUG industry and newly emboldened Republicans in Congress, President Clinton scaled down his plan, announced last month, for the government to finance immunization shots for all American children, regardless of their families' ability to pay. The Administration now proposes to supply free vaccines only to youngsters who are on Medicaid or who are uninsured. Even so trimmed, said Clinton, the proposal is still "a big advance over where we are."

About half the nation's two-year-olds are not fully immunized against mumps, measles, polio, whooping cough and five other childhood diseases. But critics said Clinton's original proposal, at $1.1 billion, was too costly and that parents' failure to take youngsters to public clinics, where free shots are already available, was more to blame than steep vaccine prices. Administration officials have acknowledged that among the major problems are clinic hours that are too short and lines that are too long.