U.S. Will Donate Part of H1N1 Vaccine Supply to Foreign Nations Before Meeting This Nation’s Demand

CNSNEWS.COM ^ | Thursday, October 22, 2009 | Chris Neefus

[FreeKeys]

Sebelius Says U.S. Will Donate Part of H1N1 Vaccine Supply to Foreign Nations Before Meeting This Nation’s Demand
Thursday, October 22, 2009
By Chris Neefus
 
  

.......		Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) asked Health and Human Service  Secretary Kathleen Sebilius why the United States should  get vaccinations ahead of people in other countries, including  those in countries that are producing the vaccine for the  United States. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr) When Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) had his turn to question  Sebelus, he raised the issue of whether the United States was  "entitled" to the vaccine more than other nations. "Why should  we be more entitled, the U.S. be more   entitled to that vaccine  than some other country in the world?" .....

(CNSNews.com) – Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told CNSNews.com Wednesday that one in 10 doses of the swine-flu vaccine purchased by the U.S. will be donated to other nations before the U.S. demand for the vaccine is filled.

Sebelius also told a Senate committee that vaccine production is well behind demand.

“What we said is once we have 40 million doses (of the vaccine), the donation can start,” Sebelius told CNSNews.com. “There’s an agreement (of) 10 percent donation that 11 nations have made,” she said.

HHS has ordered about 250 million doses of the vaccine, so the donation would begin after the U.S. received just 16 percent of its original order.

Sebelius made the remarks at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on the government's preparations for dealing with the H1N1 flu virus outbreak. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano also provided testimony at the hearing.

The nation’s top health bureaucrat said the government would still donate to foreign nations part of the stock of vaccine purchased by the U.S. government despite delays in getting the vaccine to American citizens, which she said puts the nation “at the point where demand is ahead of the yield.”

“We will do our best to ramp up the production and continue to push it out the door,” Sebelius said.  Sebelius responded: "Well, I think the balance is difficult. The president clearly has made it clear that his priority is safety and security of the  American people, and immediately he also adds that we're a global partner. So we have joined now with 11 nations in terms of 10 percent of the
vaccine will be made available to developing countries."

Sebelius said that Congress had “wisely” included funds in the last supplemental appropriations bill to allow HHS to place large orders of the vaccine well in advance.

“The orders are filled in priority terms, so we are really at the front of the line with some of these (manufacturers) in terms of getting the vaccine as it is produced,” she added.

“The orders are filled in priority terms, so we are really at the front of the line with some of these (manufacturers) in terms of getting the vaccine as it is produced,” she added.

When speaking with CNSNews.com after the hearing, Sebelius also emphasized the needs of developing countries. 

		.....
.....		Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen  Sebelius (Photo by Penny Starr/CNSNews.com)  .....

Asked whether Americans should be prioritized over foreigners with the stockpile of H1N1 vaccine that HHS has ordered using taxpayer funds, Sebelius said: “Well, I think that we are trying to do both things simultaneously--participating is part of our partnership with 11 other countries in terms of donating to developing countries.”

“There’s an agreement (on) 10 percent donation that 11 nations have made, at the same time trying to get the vaccine out to Americans," said Sebelius. "What we said is once we have 40 million doses, the donation can start.”

Referring to the production delay for the vaccine, Sebelius told CNSNews.com: “We had hoped that that would be a little earlier, but we are working with these 11 nations through the World Health Organization (WHO) to help get the vaccines to countries particularly who can't purchase them. I mean, that’s really the issue is the countries who don’t have the wherewithal to purchase vaccines. We need to make available some of the vaccine that is available to the developed nations.”

When CNSNews.com tried to clarify whether the donation would happen once the delay in production was over and all of the U.S. demand had been met, Sebelius said that was not the case.

“Well, no," she said. "Forty million doses was the initial benchmark and so once that is in this country, then 10 percent of the (doses are donated), and we’ll make up the rest. That’s what the other nations are doing too--England, New Zealand, and Australia and Germany and Spain are all participating in this kind of global effort.”

HHS has ordered about 250 million doses of swine flu vaccine, both in injection and nasal mist forms, which they expect to administer through the spring. The U.S. population is about 307 million.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

Bump Dat!!!,,,

[bustinchops]

I don’t want the damn shot, but how is it that the vaccine belongs to the government in the first place for them to decide who gets it and how much should be given away? I belong to a private HMO. If I want it, I shouldn’t have to forgo what I’ve paid for through my HMO for some mud-hut dweller in Timbuktu.

[Erik Latranyi]

I usually find CNS News reliable, but cannot find this story anywhere else online.

[Erik Latranyi]

Here is Obama's announcement of the donation back in September:

Obama Announces Donation

[Mouton]

Notice any mis-statements in that, the vacine will be available ahead of schedule for one. This is incompentence on a massive scale. Deciding to give away what is basically a stockpiled resource is beyond treason assuming their concept of how virulent this may become.

My question is which countries are getting these doses and whom in those countries will be receiving them. My guess, every puppet dictator and Emir who wants one gets it, Putin and his band of thugs will be first in line over there and the rest of the population just like here will be left to twist in the wind.

From my perspective, the last people in line should be OZero and the rest of the elected scum in DC.

Vince

[plain talk]

10 percent. That’s where this is going. Next we will be individually “tithing” 10 percent in the form of a global income tax.

[savedbygrace]

What’s the fatality rate for the vaccine?

[GOPJ]

Thanks for the ping.

[TAP ONLINE]

Do you really think they would take shots for the SWINE Flu?

[GOPsterinMA]

AMEN! They were distributing the seasonal flu shots at work last Tuesday. I declined to get a shot and a few sheeple asked me repeatedly “Aren't you getting a shot?” Uh, “No” doofuses.

In my group of 9 people, 3 of declined the shot (3 Republican males FWIW). Of the six that received it, 2 experienced side effects (headache, chills, nausea) and missed a day of work each.

They can have have mine too...

[webschooner]

I would say good riddance!

... except that it’s decidedly un-nice to donate poison to other countries and not label it as such.

[Born In America]

This pic reminds me of the cigarette commercial (back when it was “kool” to asdvertise smokes on TV). I think it Tareyton that had the tag, “I’d rather fight than switch”....

[Born In America]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArDFVEikL8k

[ExTexasRedhead]

I will donate mine to Zero or any of his Czars and let the American people watch to ensure that they took it by order of We The People.

[Recon by Fire]

It looks like someone sucker punched her in the left eye or it is a glass eye.

[null and void]

Only if the call it something else.

I’ve noted that they are trying to re-brand it as a bird flu...

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[FreeKeys]

Tanks.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

A simpler solution from an insider conspiracy theorist.

There is no emergency. There is no pandemic. There is no need for vaccine so none, or only a little, has been ordered.

Just as there was no crisis in the economy other than the one created by the Democrats to enable them to use the “crisis” to take over much of the financial system, bankrupt the country, take over the auto industry, and assume a lot of power they don’t Constitutionally have, they have now created a “health emergency” to declare a national emergency.

Then they hype (lie about) the number of cases and deaths, “discover” they don’t have enough vaccine, and declare martial law to quarantine most of the population.

Why is Obama dithering about sending troops to Afghanistan? Maybe he needs them here to enforce martial law.

Will they cooperate? Hmmmm???

[MinuteGal]

Sebelius had a basal cell carcinoma removed from her forehead on Tuesday. Nothing is wrong with her eye. It only appears puffy and glassy because of the effects of the nearby procedure.

Look closely and you can see the bandage dressing where the surgery took place.

Leni