BILL AND HILLARY CLINTON RESPONSIBLE FOR INFLUENZA VACCINE SHORTAGE

EIB The Rush Limbaugh Show ^ | Dec 10, 2003

[Yosemitest]

I'd like more proof on the legislation and a link to it. If anyone has it, please provide it below.

[familyofman]

Did Rush go back on the meds? He loves to blame everything on those 2, I guess he can't think of anything better to talk about.

[Weimdog]

Don't you think it's up to Rush to back up his own statements.

He's got a big staff, he should be posting his documentation on his website in real time.

[1Old Pro]

Not to mention the vaccine has the wrong flu strain.

[AppyPappy]

There's a lot to blame.

[thoughtomator]

I think Rush Limbaugh ought to avoid medical issues until he resolves his own.

[rs79bm]

Did Rush go back on the meds? He loves to blame everything on those 2, I guess he can't think of anything better to talk about.

Sadly, the story is true. And, I think your listening to Rush for all the wrong reasons.

[FreeAtlanta]

It sounds like something they would have done. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and vote buying. I would like to know, if there is legistation/executive order, etc. to back up the claim.

[ladyinred]

Some are commenting for a certain agenda it appears. Too bad.

[rs79bm]

I think you ought not to be broad siding' Mr. Limbaugh. As Rush said yesterday, the media does not analyze people, it persecutes them. You are listening to too much of the media for this story.

[AppyPappy]

Flu Vaccine Shortage is Due to Low Price Not Manufacturing Problems




Widespread national reports of a flu vaccine shortage due to manufacturing problems and plant shutdowns are simply not true. The real cause of the shortage is the flu vaccine's low price.

The whole process of producing, selling and distributing flu vaccine is complicated. It not only involves manufacturers and distributors, but the World Health Organization who annually determines the formula. Manufacturers must wait for their recommendation to complete production of the vaccine. Most contracts for fall delivery of the vaccine are made early in the spring, long before the recommendation for the final strain has been announced.

Manufacturers begin producing vaccine in the winter with a limited amount of marketing and production data. At prices ranging from $2.00 to $3.00 per dose, quantities of vaccines that are not sold or returned at the end of the season can turn a manufacturer's annual profit into a loss. As a result each manufacturer produces only what they know they can sell.

Any negative variation in the actual production of the flu vaccine results in a market shortage during the critical months of September and October. By the time manufacturers learn their original projections are off, it is difficult to quickly make up the shortage. Chicken eggs are a critical component of the vaccine, and it is hard to make chickens lay several hundred thousand eggs on short notice.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

How can they forcast effectively which vaccine will be needed that year?

[rs79bm]

Don't you think it's up to Rush to back up his own statements.

Actually, it's also up to you to prove him otherwise. So let's hear it.

Until then, I'm sticking with Rush on this.

[Dog Gone]

it is hard to make chickens lay several hundred thousand eggs on short notice

About a day, I'd reckon.

[Yosemitest]

THANKS!!!

[Mo1]

BILL AND HILLARY CLINTON RESPONSIBLE FOR INFLUENZA VACCINE SHORTAGE

Hey, I hate the Clinton's just as much as the next guy

But would Rush have proof of this??

Right now he sounds like he is being chewed out by a few callers

[rs79bm]

So there you have it....it is the Clinton's fault. Another in a long list of things they have done to damage this Country.

[AppyPappy]

There are pricing issues as well. One of the things that I think that's the most amazing that's happened: The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) has put a rule out that anybody that they give funding to develop a vaccine can only market that vaccine for 10% above what it costs to make it. And that's really something that's going to need to be looked at, because otherwise there's a huge disincentive for pharmaceutical companies to make a vaccine. But people like me can't make vaccines by ourselves -- we need the infrastructure. So we need to attract big pharmaceutical companies to work with people at universities that have ideas, to bring things forward.

[jackbill]

The shortage is partly due to Mrs. Clinton. However, three Republican Senators are perhaps more responsible.

From Inside Politics in today's Washington Times.

Three senators

"A few weeks from now, when the country has run out of flu vaccine and people want to know why, we suggest they knock on the doors of Senators Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and Lincoln Chafee. Perhaps the three Republicans can explain when they intend to honor their promise to hold an open debate about the tort liabilities facing vaccine makers," the Wall Street Journal says.

"The reason for today's shortage -- as well as seven previous preventive vaccine shortages since 2000 -- is that there are just five vaccine makers. This lack of suppliers is partly thanks to Hillary Clinton, who as first lady turned government into the majority buyer of vaccines and pushed prices so low as to make business unsustainable. (This price control approach, we'd note, is what Democrats would now like to inflict on the Medicare drug program.)

"But just as worrying to manufacturers is an explosion of class action lawsuits. Vaccine makers are supposed to be protected from suits by 1986 legislation, but tort lawyers have found loopholes and filed more than 200 cases. The Republican leadership fixed this by including a liability provision in the Homeland Security legislation of a year ago. That is, until Ms. Snowe, Ms. Collins and Mr. Chafee objected to its 'dark of the night' insertion and forced Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist into repealing it," the newspaper said in an editorial.

"In return for their victory, the senators promised an open debate on broad liability reform within six months. That would have been ... June. But the Senate canceled a markup on a reform bill in April and the senators have gone quiet. Apparently, making sound vaccine policy isn't as politically rewarding as preening before the media by standing up to 'special interests' (vaccine makers). So, what's your solution for the flu-shot shortage, senators?"

[OldFriend]

Rush is full of it!!!! The vaccine makers had to destroy a few million doses of unsold vaccine last year and therefore, cut back this year.

Part of the problem is the fact that this year's vaccine is NOT formulated for this year's strain of the flu. To say nothing of the endless hype from the media........

As for Rush, after listening to the past few minutes, I find his commentary and treatment of the two women callers totally insufferable.

He's gotten a potty mouth and now objects to our objecting...typical dem ploy.