got my flu shot....officially, we now have TWO medical systems...

[diamond14]

today, I got my flu shot...inside the Beltway....there is NO flu vaccine available at local public health care clinics, or at local pharmacies and supermarkets that usually have flu shot clinics....flu shots have been cancelled at work sites....

so, I sent an email to my private doctor's office....and amazingly, they emailed back that I could come in and get a flu shot anytime....so I went today, and there were FOUR big signs on the office door...FLU SHOTS, ONLY FOR OUR PATIENTS....

the nurse said that they have been overwhelmed with people trying to get the flu shots....so they decided ONLY to give it to their private patients...luckily that includes me....

the nurse told me how stressed our current health care system/hospitals are already, and MANY will DIE because of this...she also suggested that I vote for KERRY !!!


so this winter...expect thousands of Americans to DIE because of bush* flu shot fiasco/incompetence....and the bush* high price of heating oil/gas....the rich will get their flu shots...and a few lucky people like me.....

[greekspeak]

1. Don't you think you should have saved that for patients at greater risk?

Even though your doctor glibly gave you your shot, what about the at risk person that will not get one? If you are an at-risk person, just ignore me.

[diamond14]

4. only if you BELIEVE that those saved shots will go to those at-risk

I do NOT believe that the saved shots will go to those at-risk...


also, I am at-risk...and that's why I opted for a PRIVATE PHYSICIAN a while back....the public health care system is collapsing...and this winter, you'll see it BIG TIME....

but, I brought my story up on DU to show everyone how messed up OUR health care system is in this country....

[fishface]

2. Got mine at the VA hospital a week before the panic started.

They are completely out already and the program normally lasts a couple of months.

[Rowdyboy]

3. I need one for medical reasons

You were required to prove that you were in a special needs group. Stood in line at the Kroger pharmacy I regularly use, for two hours, about 10 days ago, at the beginning of this fiasco.

[Warpy]

5. I'm extremely high risk, and I've decided to bag the shot

for now, and allow the very old and very young to get theirs first.

How Bush dropped the ball was not by issuing an EO calling for strict rationing, keeping it away from his constituency (the healthy rich) and reserving it for the people who really need it. Given the tight supply, these lines should NEVER have been allowed to happen! This is insane. This is sheer incompetence!

Hospitals are shortstaffed and stressed to the max right now, and that's without all the flu patients that come in every winter. The increased load will turn a crisis situation into a catastrophe very quickly.

Yes, deaths will likely rise from complications from flu this year. Yes, the flaws in the healthcare system will become so incredibly obvious that nobody will be able to ignore them. Yes, we're due for a major meltdown.

This country has simply got to start taking public health more seriously. Just as poverty is a WMD, so is the neglect of public health, and the diseases of the poor have a nasty habit of being transmitted to the rich, no matter what sort of gold plated concierge care they enjoy. Bush, of course, thinks the system is great the way it is.

They ignore the rest of us at their extreme peril. Flu is the least of the risk they run.

[diamond14]

6. go get a flu shot, Warpy....the system is NOT allowing the shots to reach

the very old and the very young...there is simply random distribution and really, no effort to get shots to the very old and the very young...

so go for it, Warpy.....SAVE YOUR OWN LIFE....take action now, before it is too late.....don't listen to bush* and those idiots....YOU must try now to save yourself....


I have been hospitalized close to death for the flu TWICE in my life...and it's a real horrible and ghastly way to die...even if you survive, like I eventually did, you may never be the same....