Officials See a Shortage in Vaccine for Swine Flu

Health officials on Friday predicted a shortfall in the supply of swine flu vaccine, as the numbers of cases, hospitalizations and deaths grow to levels unprecedented for this time of year.

Flu caused by the H1N1 virus is now widespread in 41 states, and flulike illnesses account for 6.1 percent of all doctor visits.

“That’s high for any time, particularly for October,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Forty-three children have died from swine flu since Aug. 30 — about the same number that usually die in an entire flu season. Nineteen of the 43 who died were teenagers, and 16 were ages 5 to 11 years old; the rest were under 5.

...Projections of the supply of swine flu vaccine have widely varied. During the summer, health officials said 120 million doses would be ready in October. They later dropped the estimate to 40 million doses by the end of the month.

Now, Dr. Schuchat said, they expect only 28 million to 30 million doses, adding that the exact numbers were impossible to predict and could change daily. She said vaccine manufacturers were reporting that production was behind schedule.

“I wish we could be more predictable, but this is how influenza vaccine goes,” Dr. Schuchat said.

The WHO demanded that the wealthy “states” share their vaccines with third world “states.” Looks like the countries in Europe and Canada went ahead and purcured enough vaccines for their total populations - if the people choose to take it.

The US, on the other hand, is short on the vaccine and getting shorter all the time. Did Obama’s spread the “life” to the globe like he spreads wealth and end up risking life in the US to accomodate the lives of foreigners? I bet he did.

This won’t matter if the virus is seen to be mild by the public which is why it is to Obama’s advantage to make it look mild by refusing to collect accurate statistics on infections and deaths. The CDC has been claiming the disease rarely kills healthy people - only people with “pre-existing” disease. Those people, mostly would have lived fine had they not been attacked by the virus so the virus is responsible for their deaths but they are not counted in that low number of flu deaths.

The government mantra or spin coming out of the Tee Vee is that it’s a “mild” disease and when that happens, it’s best to get off the band wagon and pay attention to what is really going on. Human life is not a proiorty in this society. Economics is THE number one priority and protecting Obama from a Katrina-like mess is also the priority.

Just cause you don’t know anyone with the disease does not mean it is not widespread just like you don’t need to know someone unemployed or bankrupt to know the economy is in a mess. We have no investigative reporters checking out the government figures on the disease and we have no data published from the pitiful studies done on the vaccine’s safety. In short, Americans don’t really know squat about what is going on with the flu or the vaccine from a scientific level of certanity.

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