Time is of the essence when controlling infectious diseases that spread at high speed and thus, interventions are most effective in the beginning when only few people are infected. Only a timely application of antiviral drugs (even with limited supplies) and a quick implementation of contact reduction measures will notably protract the peak of the epidemic and substantially reduce its height in a pandemic influenza wave. Whereby the protraction of the pandemic wave is essential to win time while waiting for vaccine development and production, it is the height of the peak of a pandemic wave which can easily overtax general practitioners as well as hospitals and whole public health systems, and can lead to dangerous bottlenecks in basic and emergency medical care. Vaccinating a small fraction of the population with a pre-pandemic vaccine would have a similar effect on the course of the epidemic as reducing the basic reproduction number by the percentage of immunized individuals (e.g. by 10%).