Posted on 10/31/2009 3:52:48 AM PDT by Kaslin
How can the government pretend that it can manage, overhaul, streamline and reform the health care system in the United States when it can't even deliver enough flu shots to prevent a pandemic?
We have seen the H1N1 virus coming for over a year. It is no surprise that much of America needs vaccination. It was no secret that the flu season was approaching. But, now that it is upon us, we find ourselves pathetically short of shots.
One year ago, the government told us that we would have hundreds of millions of vaccinations available. Then, over the summer, the prediction was that 40 million would be on hand by the end of October.
Last month, the estimate was scaled back to 28 million. And, as of late last week, only 11.5 million had been delivered, leaving tens of millions vulnerable and, tragically, likely leading to hundreds of preventable deaths. Given the tendency of the virus to strike the young, many of those deaths will be among children.
It should be a fairly simple task to produce and distribute a vaccine -- as we do with regular flu shots each and every year. But it was apparently beyond the capacity of the Obama administration to manage such a routine feat.
If it can't run the epidemiological equivalent of a two-car funeral, how can Obama promise that the government will do an adequate job of managing the nation's health care system? (To say nothing of two car companies and a trove of banks and insurance firms?)
In the debate over health care, the implicit assumption has been that the government can act with competence and timeliness. The discussion has largely centered on what powers to give the government -- not on whether it had the ability to wield this new authority.
The bill making its way through Congress empowers the federal government to decide on protocols of health care, penalize excessive costs and moderate reimbursement fees. These are all difficult and delicate tasks, and involve decision that must be made promptly and wisely for the system to have a chance of working. Otherwise, endless delays, bottlenecks and snafus can eventuate. And these failures can have drastic consequences for the health of all Americans.
Do we really have confidence in government's ability to make these decisions? Does its manifest inability to protect us from the swine flu do anything to inspire such confidence?
Not so far!
This one will never be reported elsewhere. The Administration is blaming the problem on the manufacturers, who in turn are blaming it on slow growth of the virus in culture.
Flu Shot Shortage Shows Government Incompetence.
A harbinger of our future health care.
Now we know where their other priority lies:
If this scenario were playing out under George Bush, the fake outrage in the media would be deafening. Incredible (well, not really) how Obama gets a total pass on this.
Spot on. You’d have the MSM opening every broadcast with the increasing numbers of the dead women and children that would have been laid at his feet.
It’s very importantthat we test this vaccine before we give it to the public... Maybe one of the GITMO boys will suffer a side effect and go meet his virgins??
If the Clinton Administration hadn't devastated the vaccine manufacturing industry in the US years ago by means of price caps, we wouldn't have this problem to begin with.
Correcto. Katrina II next on Anderson Cooper!
That’s a very important point. Obama is trying to repeat that a thousand fold.
Silly, that's because it's really not Obama's fault. It's Bush's fault, just like everything else wrong with the world today. You see, the reason that it's Bush's fault is, well, uh, um, uh...HOPE AND CHANGE!
I declined a flu shot this week at my regular check up. Not for any tin-hat reason. I did it because I didn’t want to take a shot away from a child. We’re at least a million doses short in PA.
BUSH RESPONSIBLE FOR FLU VACCINE SHORTAGEFlu shots save lives. Three years ago, medical experts warned George Bush that a dangerous shortage loomed. Instead of fixing the problem, production of the vaccine was outsourced to a factory overseas - the vaccines were contaminated. Now Bush wants Canada to help, even though his own policies make it illegal for us to import medicine from Canada. Meanwhile, there isn’t enough vaccine for seniors, children, and pregnant women. Another mess caused by George Bush’s wrong-headed priorities. It's time for a new direction. Bush can’t even handle the flu, can we trust him to handle a biological terrorist attack on the United States.
Of course, what does change is the blame game. Five years ago, everybody blamed Bush. Today, under Zero, everybody is going to blame Bush. See how the blame game changes?
News to me. I remember in April?.... it was in Mexico and they were still figuring it out.
Swine H1N1 was first reported in late March 2009, in Mexico. It was not on anyon'e radar screen in October 2008.
One year ago, the government told us that we would have hundreds of millions of vaccinations available
Since no one knew about it one year ago, how could they have promised a vaccine for it? And wasn't the Bush admin still in office one year ago? Is this another backdoor attempt to blame Bush?
On the other hand, the current admin knew full and well that it takes 6 to 9 months to produce a pandemic vaccine, and that global pandemic flu vaccine production capacity is less than 1 billion doses a year.
The claim that we would have enough vaccines by October/November to vaccinate the at-risk US population was always a pipe dream, and early indications in June/July were that the production of swine H1N1 viral antigen was less than a third of that for seasonal flu vaccine antigens, because it didn't grow well in eggs.
That's why the US gov spend $700 million on vaccine adjuvants, while it spent $1 billion on vaccine antigens.
Of course, it will require an emergency use authorization to permit the use of stockpiled adjuvants to stretch the limited vaccine antigen supply. So far, Obama has not had any scruples about declaring a national emergency over swine flu, so an emergency use authorization to permit the use of stockpiled adjuvants is likely on the short term horizon.
...
Scott Simon: On Friday, the president talked about his frustration that H1N1 vaccine hasn't gotten out to more Americans. In August, the Centers for Disease Control said that 120 million doses would be available. They later scaled that back to 45 million. We're speaking today, on the last day of October, 25 million doses reportedly are ready. Did the government overpromise?
David Axelrod: Well, I think the manufacturers overpromised, and what was reported was the representations that were made to us.
Nonsense:
Swine flu vaccine won't be ready for next wave New Scientist 13 May 2009
I wonder if Morris is thinking about the bird flu?
Yep. So get the shots now or the mist to avoid the adjuvants. I am not so fond of the idea myself....
You know, from a healthcare perspective, they (not Obama) are doing an awesome job under the circumstances. A school in this area as a vaccine site gave 2500 vaccines one day
last weekend. Many kudos should be given to the nurses, pharmacists and pharm techs I have seen working LONG days and being patient with a lot of screaming kids at these vaccination sites.
ping to my 20 above....
I took two of my kids last week for theirs and was kind of disgusted by the older people with minor healthcare issues in line. Go home. You don't need this shot if you are over 60, and the kids toward the end of the line do. Yes, their parents should have come earlier but it's hard to wait several hours in a line with young wiggly kids.
thanks :)
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