Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Anxious Crowds Meet Ad Hoc Swine Flu Police
NY Times ^ | 10/27/2009 | Jennifer Steinhauer

Posted on 10/27/2009 8:52:38 PM PDT by Saije

The top public health official in Los Angeles County stood at a swine flu vaccination site in Compton, Calif., on Tuesday and gently told elderly residents that they really ought to go home.

“I explained to people 65 or older, ‘The reason we are doing this is for children,’ ” said the official, Jonathan E. Fielding, the director of the county’s Department of Public Health. “I told them: ‘They are at very high risk for this flu, and you’re at low risk. I am sure you wouldn’t want to get a shot that left a kid who is at risk in harm’s way.’ ”

People have lined up in Southern California and across the country in recent days in the hope of getting a prick in the arm, but a dearth of the H1N1 vaccine has created an unexpected dynamic: local government officials, hospital workers and doctors in private practice are being conscripted as ad hoc swine flu police.

The goal is to make sure that those Americans with the highest risk for contracting the virus — and experiencing the more dangerous complications that can ensue — get injected first. But the somewhat willy-nilly nature of the vaccine’s distribution in some areas, publicity surrounding President Obama’s declaration of a national emergency and the rather large population legitimately considered high risk have brought hundreds of thousands of people to vaccine distribution points.

Some people beg. Some reduce themselves to lying about a pregnancy, or an underlying medical condition, that would move them ahead of the pack. In any case, officials say it is virtually impossible to verify most of the claims.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: adhoc; anxious; crowds; flu; h1n1; health; influenza; meet; police; shortage; swineflu; vaccine
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-35 next last
"somewhat willy-nilly nature of the vaccine's distribution in some areas..."

A typical NY Times way of saying that the federal government has no clue how to handle this competently.

1 posted on 10/27/2009 8:52:38 PM PDT by Saije
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Saije

Welcome to National Health Care.


2 posted on 10/27/2009 8:54:37 PM PDT by Dallas59 (No To O -Time is going by really really really really slow.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Saije

Old Clunkers, please go home.


3 posted on 10/27/2009 8:54:58 PM PDT by fullchroma (Obama: GET OUT OF MY DOCTOR'S OFFICE!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Saije

Has the Obama girls had theirs yet ???


4 posted on 10/27/2009 8:55:22 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tennessee Nana

Supposedly...


5 posted on 10/27/2009 8:56:55 PM PDT by Dallas59 (No To O -Time is going by really really really really slow.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Saije

These guys are so incompetent at messaging. The Complete Lifecycles Program does not include the elderly.

They have lived their life and it is time to move on.

It is for the children.


6 posted on 10/27/2009 8:59:06 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously... You'll never live through it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Saije

Suckers. I have talked to 4 doctors and they said do not go near the H1N1 “vaccine.” Suckers like NFL fans.


7 posted on 10/27/2009 8:59:18 PM PDT by Frantzie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Saije
“I explained to people 65 or older, ‘The reason we are doing this is for children.

On Beck's show the other day he talked about a letter someone wrote to Time.

In it the snot nosed twit wrote "Step aside Grandma,we want our healthcare and we want it now"

The elderly should be very afraid.

8 posted on 10/27/2009 9:00:07 PM PDT by hercuroc
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tennessee Nana

Not according to DRUDGE last night.


9 posted on 10/27/2009 9:10:21 PM PDT by Peacekeeper357 (Monthly donor since joining FR. Become a monthly donor,now.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Saije

I just got over the Pig Flu yesterday......

Fairly mild symptoms for 5 days.....still have the cough but it’s abating....

Oh the horror, it made me cut down to only one cigar a day......(only for two days, but it was a tough two days!)

Now I’m immune!

My opinion, don’t get the shot unless you’re at very high risk......


10 posted on 10/27/2009 9:12:02 PM PDT by nevergore ("It could be that the purpose of my life is simply to serve as a warning to others.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nevergore

You and me too. I kept putting down my cigar and going to bed. Took me hours to finsh one.


11 posted on 10/27/2009 9:19:12 PM PDT by razorback-bert (We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Saije

Yes. “The elderly,” most of my fellow Baby Boomers, should be terrified, because that’s part of their nature. Yet so many of them want to find out how life in the USA would be, if it were like the third world countries.

We need that big default, so they can see what those off-limits areas outside their resorts are like...firsthand.


12 posted on 10/27/2009 9:21:11 PM PDT by familyop (cbt. engr. (cbt), NG, '89-' 96, Duncan Hunter or no-vote)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: familyop

The ‘elderly’, came through the Great Depression. They know what it’s like. They were children, they watched their parents drive vehicles with no tires because there was no tires to be had. Food was rationed. One egg a week. and it goes down hill from there. They told their children of it. But we are now into the grandchildren and great grandchildren and great great grandchildren, and they have no clue. None. Life has always been comfy for them. Most never doing without much. Oh sure, maybe they didn’t have the luxury jeans, but they didn’t do without clothes and shoes etc!
Gasoline was rationed, for those who had a car, and it would run, with or without tires.


13 posted on 10/27/2009 9:30:52 PM PDT by Freddd (CNN is not credible.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Tennessee Nana
Not according to the "snews."

The "reason" - they are not "available" in their "area" as well as they're not in the "high risk" category (read - go to private schools, get 3 meals a day, have access to everything else - and biggest - the H1N1 vaccine hasn't been "proven as safe.")

What we're in is "human test guinea pigs," not acceptable for Obama's children!

14 posted on 10/27/2009 9:33:34 PM PDT by zerosix (native sunflower)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Saije
Considering the elderly (sans "underlying medical conditions") are generally less at risk from the H1N1 flu than young people (an unusual profile, and similar to the 1918 Influenze--which prompted panic ridden images of the pandemic), this is the correct decision.

Poor communication and the insistent recitation of the normal seasonal flu risk profiles by the media has led to the confusion.

15 posted on 10/27/2009 9:39:53 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Saije

Preview of things to come. Was there any charge for the vaccination? I bet not.


16 posted on 10/27/2009 9:40:44 PM PDT by La Lydia
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndreconmarine; Fitzcarraldo; Covenantor; Mother Abigail; EBH; Dog Gone; ...
Ping...



Also, Keep up with other H1N1 update stories on this thread: H1N1 flu victim collapsed on way to hospital [Latest H1N1 updates downthread] thanks to DvdMom and others.

17 posted on 10/27/2009 9:42:57 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: familyop

What?


18 posted on 10/27/2009 9:52:45 PM PDT by firebrand
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: hercuroc
In it the snot nosed twit wrote "Step aside Grandma,we want our healthcare and we want it now"

It amazes me that the young folk somehow don't acknowledge that - barring an early demise - they, too, will one day be 'elderly."

Twits.

19 posted on 10/27/2009 9:52:46 PM PDT by maine-iac7 ("He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help" LINCOLN)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Saije

Fear mongers...


20 posted on 10/27/2009 10:01:12 PM PDT by Crim
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-35 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson