My Flu Vaccine Rant

[Inland]

Here, its really simple: There is a matter of death and millions of lost productivity, reoccurring every year, preventable with a cheap, easy method---but mere lives and money isn't enough to get on the government's radar. A real problem with an easy solution isn't on the conservative checklist. "Lower taxes, check; Iraq, check; rolling back environmental regulation, check; saving lives and money with a cheap, simple procedure, nope, don't see it here. Who sent you?"

It isn't a huge deal like a moon launch, it wouldn't require an army of bureacrats, but there aren't two smart guys the admin would bother to spare to work on something that, frankly, nobody lobbies for and won't be hailed from the pulpits of churches.

No "gate". This is run of the mill, everyday incompetence from a lazy, ideologically driven administration.

[whistle]

1. Bush should pay for seniors to fly up to Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver

...to get free Canadian flu shots. I'll bet the Canadian companies that make the flu shots were locked out of the U.S. bidding when that 100 million doses were ordered by BushCo.

[MindPilot]

2. Well, I wonder if there isn't something more sinister going on

My local news report just mentioned there is no shortage a few miles down the road in TJ. In fact they put a least one map to a Tijuana clinic on their website. This is a US shortage.

When I heard that I wondered if maybe the BFEE might be trying to cull the herd a bit. A little Nazi-esqe killing off of the old and the infirm. Are they evil enough? I think so.

[Aunt Anti-bush]

It is a scary thought.

My son's doctor's office told me today they are not allowed by law to give the vaccine to anyone who doesn't fall into the age categories (babies and elderly only) but then she told me they didn't get any of it anyway, but they did get some sort of federal memorandum that stated they can't give it to anyone but those age groups so even if they had it, it would be illegal to give it to anyone else. That's creepy, the whole thing stinks.

[DemBones DemBones]

13. They're supposed to give it to people with chronic medical conditions like

me. We are high risk, too, and so are pregnant women.

The government also wants health care workers to get the shot -- and they are giving it to the military. I hope that's just for military going to Iraq, where a flu epidemic or even a few cases could be dangerous in many ways. The military isn't getting enough vaccine, either.

[Aunt Anti-bush]

28. Did you get it?

You should get it asap.

[NV Whino]

6. I think you are right on the money

They are eliminating the people who are "no longer productive" and "draining" the social security reserves, and at the other end with all their pro life bushit, they are producing more worker bees to contribute to SS.

[Auntie Bush]

11. TRUE...plus look at the profits the DRUG company's will make

selling products to combat the flu and it's symptoms.

Stock tip! Buy pharmaceuticals now! Oops! Too late.
Bet bush et al bought lots of shares of whoever makes Rubitussin.

[Inland]

25. Vaccine isn't profitable, but the intensive care is, perhaps.

[Inland]

26. Vaccine isn't profitable, but the intensive care is, perhaps.

[in_cog_ni_to]

29. That was the first thing I thought of

when this story hit. They ARE evil enough and in my mind, that is exactly what they're doing. I don't doubt for a minute that this was a sinister plan. They knew 3 YEARS ago that this problem existed.

[enough]

3. That is not a rant.

That is a concise, cogent analysis of the situation. Thanks.

[sr_pacifica]

4. This is a rant

Goddam motherfuckers---Leadership my ass! "Flu vaccine crisis" is all about whittling away the social security rolls. The Bush Plan for social security. Nazi dickheads....I hate them.

[Birthday]

5. Canada - Not good enough

Does it make anyone else sick that Bush has shown no regard for Canadian manufacturers of drugs? And that, now that we have this flu shortage, he is looking to Canada to bail us out??????

I wish the Kerry campaign would expose Bush along these lines, for insulting our neighbor to the north, and then, as if nothing happened, turning to them for help with the flu vaccine. Yikes.

[DemBones DemBones]

14. Yes, it does. And welome to DU! Is it

YOUR Birthday today? :hi:

[Auntie Bush]

15. Another Bush flip flop! Can't buy Canadian...dangerous. Oops

Now you can buy Canadian...life saving.

[luzdeluna]

7. flumist

Today my doctor gave me a script for Flumist.

It's a "live virus" vaccine that is only given to healthy people between the ages of 5 and 50.

It's in the form of a nasal spray and rather expensive. My insurance company (BC/BS NJ) covers it because the flu shot is not available.
LDL

[DemBones DemBones]

17. Gracias, luzdeluna! Though it won't help me 'cause I'm high risk

I'm highly annoyed with getting the runaround from the ditzes in my doctor's front office. They know I'm a high risk patient but they offer no help. My doctor is super but getting through to him is problematic.

Anyway, I'm glad this drug is available for healthy people and welcome to DU!

:hi:

[put out]

19. Flumist (FluMist?) is only available to those

under 50. What the hell was going on with the damned research? The only reason those over 50 can't get it is because no one wanted or would pay for the trials to prove it safe! Why didn't they do it? It is probably as safe for a healthy 60 year old as it is for a 40 year old! If I was 50, I'd sure take my chances with the nasal vaccine.

I am disgusted. I am a nurse and I can't get a flu shot because I am not in "direct patient contact". I saw 50 or so children today doing a mass screening for vision and hearing. No even telling how many others I saw. And, if I get sick, I have a few days to pass it to my students, my family, and who knows who else before I know I'm infected.

I anticipate much dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs where public health and private profit collide, especially when we are looking at the "big government" standing around with hands in pockets doing nothing; hands in pockets, most likely, ours.

My semi-incoherent rant. Edit for...trying to make it better. Forgive.

[Timefortruth]

32. My healthy 16 year old and asthmatic 15 year old

have appointments at their pediatrician for the flu shot, I made the appointments a while ago. Yesterday I called to cancel the appointment for the healthy child and was told not to worry, they have plenty. I asked for an assurance that a sick kid wouldn't be deprived a shot because my kid took one and the receptionist said they have plenty.

Go figure.

[ProfessorGAC]

35. I Got Mine Yesterday - Same Story

They came out to my workplace and gave the shots. The nurse said they received their vaccines about 7 weeks ago and got EVERYTHING they ordered. No word of shortages at all, until 2 or 3 weeks after they had their supply.

She said every clinic in the area had plenty.

Like you said: Go figure.
The Professor

[Cleita]

8. I don't know how Bush and his cronies sleep at night.

Surely there must be guilt over the wholesale murders, death and destruction caused by their actions, which are getting worse and worse everyday. I guess that's why they seem to be koo koo half the time on soma-type drugs that they might be taking to help them to forget.

[oscar111]

9. turkeys! even let bush sit Pet Goat, when ought to have hidden him away

where no cameras could document his total puppet nature, doing nothing.

Handlers were turkeys! Bush admin is full of pure turkeys.

No electric for Iran in hundred plus heat, another stupidity.

[PoiBoy]

10. Absolutely...!

No "gate". This is run of the mill, everyday incompetence from a lazy, ideologically driven administration.

Very well said,Inland... I'm sure you've seen this posted elsewhere on DU:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041017/NEWS09/410170343/1001/NEWS

<snip>
In a conference call arranged with John Kerry's campaign, Vilsack claimed that a 2001 report from the federal government's General Accounting Office warned of potential vaccine supply problems. It mentioned specifically the risk of having too few manufacturers of flu vaccine and outlined concerns about contamination risk, he said.

Vilsack also claimed the Bush administration ignored specific information in August 2003 concerning quality control problems at the British plant owned by Chiron Corp.

British officials earlier this month unexpectedly shut down the plant, cutting the United States' supply of flu shots in half.

"It is beyond belief that this administration would have ignored the warnings in 2001 and ignored specific concerns in 2003 as it relates to this particular threat," Vilsack said.
<end>

these bastards KNEW and didn't do a thing about it... :wtf:

[Beetwasher]

12. They Ignored Warnings AGAIN!!!

That will directly lead to people's deaths...

[Inland]

22. Memo said, "Flu Wants to Strike Inside US", read by Rice to Bush, ignored

Was terrorism another subject just not on the ideological checklist?

[Ilsa]

16. A friend works at a hospital in another state.

She said they can't get it to innoculate thier employees.

On PBS' The NewsHour the other night, one of the head docs of an ER physicians association referred to it as "The Perfect Storm" in epidemiology. The healthcare workers will get exposed to it and pass it around, not realizing they are getting sick. This could get really ugly.

Bushco = Death

[Timefortruth]

33. But Tommy Thompson says there is nothing to worry about.

Don't wait in those lines, there is no problem.

[DemBones DemBones]

18. I believe this can be the gate that brings Bush* down, giving Kerry

a landslide victory.

Keep on the media so everything gets out there.

Here's why: I talked to a good friend today, someone who reads a lot, watches C-SPAN, and is a liberal Dem. Smart, too. We trade off books we buy, like "Against All Enemies," "The Bush Dynasty." And she thought John Kerry, who she supports, was going overboard criticizing Bush* for the vaccine crisis. I went through one of the talking points here:

http://winningargument.blogspot.com/

and she realized she hadn't gotten the whole story.

So do you think the people who aren't as smart and politically aware as my friend know why this shortage occurred?

[nine23]

23. Greetings from Vancouver

Please excuse this outsider's "intrusion" into US politics; I wouldn't want to spark another international incident along the lines of the GuardianUK/Ohio debacle and have insults hurled at me, but...

Wasn't it just a few short weeks ago that Bush was dissing us as commie pinkos whose pharmaceutical companies manufacture "dangerous drugs", substandard to your safe, homegrown product; most probably made by and/or tampered with by evildoer terrorists, and manufactured in conditions poorer than an Osark yokel's moonshine camp?

And now he's making arrangements to have us ship a few million doses of flu vaccine down there pronto?

Hmmmm...doesn't Bush himself have a word for this? Let's see...what was that now...I think it rhymes with "hip hop"...oh right: is it FLIP FLOP?

Please nail this...um, "man". Like Jon Stewart said when he was taking the piss outa' Tucker Carlson on Crossfire last week - this stuff is becoming unbearable to watch, the stupidity simply excruciating...my head's about to explode.

Some of you may remember when, three months prior to the start of the Iraq war, a scientific poll was taken by Ipsos Reid that found 70% of Canadians considered George W. Bush more of a threat to world security than Saddam Hussain. What we meant was, this man is so stupid he's a serious liabilty and he's making our head's hurt.

Seriously though, I love this website; keep up the fight and you know we're with you Dems all the way - even our conservatives. Hell, we'll even send you drugs if it'll help...

[Inland]

27. Yeah, that was Bush, allright. Usually, the turnaround time from

Bush sticking his finger in a nation's eye and Bush begging for help is about six months. Now he is down to two weeks in this election season.

[in_cog_ni_to]

30. Welcome to DU, nine23!!

The man makes OUR heads hurt too! He's gotta go and we are kicking his ass to the curb on Nov. 2!!! All we have to worry about is the repukes STEALING the election AGAIN. They are trying their best to disenfranchise voters, but THIS time, they will NOT get away with it. Kerry has a huge team of lawyers ready to fight this.

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[Inland]

24. I think it resonates

because it is typical of this lazy ideological admin. and it is scaring people.

[chookie]

20. May I add my own rant?

The flu season is simple and predictable in its occurance, even if there isn't 100% foreknowledge of specific strains, they can usually make pretty good deductions about what to expect.

But when we have a pharmaceutical industry driven by profit, which can make more money shilling Viagra every ten minutes on the telly than they can from basic public health needs like vaccine.

Secondly, we have a corporate mentality that is ACCEPTED these days, that business is all about profit, and is not "morally obligated" to provide what people really need to fucking survive -- like vaccines and new antibiotics.

If I were president, I would be bashing pharma heads together, demanding that they produce what is critically needed, and I would be offering incentives for researchers to develop cures and new treatments, not taking bribes from the CEO who is making millions off of Viagra or Vioxx.

And we can anticipate that they intend to pass legislation to make it easier for corporations to get away with negligence and ineptitude, such as was the case with the flu vacs! We will only have the comfort that our dead loved ones are in the hands of the Lord, and that it was their time to be called Home, and that it had nothing to do with the practices of capitalism in the pharmaceutical industry. They want to do away with litigation against their precious corporations, even though it is standard Harvard Business School practice to always push the legal envelope and see what they can get away with, because getting caught and facing the fines and the consequences cost infinitely less than following the law.

I am the caregiver of my frail 80 yr old Dad, and a severely asthmatic special needs brother. So far, I have been unable to obtain vaccine. How the HELL I am going to get both of them to one of these faraway clinics that are sporadically offered is not clear.

I rate the possibility of my dad and brother perishing from jihadists pretty remote, but unfortunately, I am presently confronted by grave concerns that I might not be able to obtain vaccine in time -- and I see the possibility of them perishing from a preventable respiratory disease not too remote.

Fuck Bush. He is responsible. He is part of this mentality. They totally fucked this up. There is NO excuse for this. You can't run public health policy with a business school perspective! You can't put YOUR ideological idiots into decision making positions they are not qualified for, which are vastly different from orthodox experise, and expect it to work. No -- it is disastrous. There are going to be pointless, preventable deaths this winter in very large numbers.

If President Pinhead can't even make the right decisions regarding the frucking routine flu season, how the HELL can he construct a policy to deal with bioterrorism?

I have said for a long time that, if Bin Laden *wants* to destroy the US, my advise is for him is to sit down, put his feet up, and let George W Bush do it for him. If he feels antsy from inactivity, then maybe he should get a couple dozen jihadists, infect them with the flu, and send them to public places to cough on people. Why go to all the trouble of obtaining weaponized anthrax, when the FUCKING US government has neglected to protect Americans from the fucking flu?

Yes, this might be an issue that can bring the smirkistas down, BUT if people are too afraid of flu to go to polls to vote (and mind you, in many parts of the US, it is freaking cracky cold and damp now) -- their anger will not register in the election.

I think there is potential for the flu scare to impact the election. An election this close, you better believe they will try to use it to their advantage. If you are part of a GOTV -- get your hands on some absentee ballots and give them to people who might need them now. I don't want to wait until this is a fucking emergency to start to think about it possibly happening. Boy I would LOVE to be wrong about this and I hope to be laughing at my concerns two weeks from now -- but I smell something coming. Tommy Thompson has already "foreshadowed" it in his "grown -up" cautions to seniors that "they should not stand in long lines." Wanna make a bet this transmogrifies into a flu scare? A lot can happen in two weeks. Can they TRY to make this play to their advantage? You bet they will try.

[Inland]

21. Its not even running public health with a business school mentality

the ideologues are dumber than business. Business simply decides that something isn't profitable. But it takes a right wing think tank genius to decide that because it isn't profitable, it isn't needed. Or that if it were a good idea, people would buy it. Preventative health and public health are just those types of things that the market fails to address, along with a host of security issues. And as you and Kerry say, its exactly that type of thing that the terrorists strike at.

Business school types, and even econ majors like me, realize that that while markets do great for 99.999% of activities, sometimes they fail. Sometimes its worth stepping in. Flu bad, shots cheap, easy, and actually no side effects I know of besides allergic reactions to the eggs used to make it.

So a flu vaccine can't be produced profitably here. BFD. Lots of things can't be done profitably, but they get done. The government subsidizes insurance against terrorist acts. Bails out airlines. But as I said, there isn't a line of lobbyists for a flu shot. So it isn't even on the screen.

But I wouldn't worry about people being too afraid to go to the polls. I see long lines of pissed, angry seniors, the tip of the angry iceberg of people who don't even have the ability to wait in a line, and their caretakers. Good luck to you and your dad.

[Bridget Burke]

31. All the stories that begin with average yearly flu statistics--

How many people hospitalized & how many dead--give me pause.

Why is that acceptable? It's evident that too many people are unprotected in a "normal" year.

[Inland]

34. Yes, it always was too much

and then last year some localities got hit hard, like Colorado, and then the supplies ran out. I procrastinated, and as I was waiting in the outpatient clinic that was the last source in the county, the receptionists started telling people to not bother coming in, they were out.

And it seems to me there should be enough for every person who wants to pay for one. Its cheap. It works. There's no side effects except allergic reactions (dairy, eggs). But there's no lobbyist, no think tank, and no personal interest to put it on this admin. radar screen.