Government Health Care at Work
So... you think that government-run health care is going to be more efficient and more capable of handling the job of distributing health care services than the private sector?
CDC concedes vaccine production behind schedule - washingtonpost.com
Quote:
CDC concedes vaccine production behind schedule
The Associated Press
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 1:56 PM
WASHINGTON -- A top-ranking official of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says production of a vaccine for swine flu virus is behind schedule and people should take precautionary steps to prevent its spread.
Dr. Anne Schuchat (SHU'-kit) said "more vaccine is coming out every day" but production isn't where it was expected to be at this juncture. Interviewed on CBS's "The Early Show" Wednesday, Schuchat said "we wish we had more vaccine, but unfortunately the virus and the production of the vaccine aren't really cooperating."
For people anxious about getting their vaccinations, she said officials expect "widespread availability" by mid-November. Schuchat heads the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
washingtonpost.com
Quote:
Fairfax cancels two swine flu vaccine distributions
By Derek Kravitz
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 1:01 PM
Fairfax County has canceled two mass swine flu vaccine distributions after the Washington region's most populous locality was told it would receive only a fraction of the vaccine doses it had expected.
Officials had originally planned on administering 50,000 H1N1 flu vaccine shots to schoolchildren next weekend at 10 public middle schools. Instead, a smaller, targeted distribution for infants and pregnant women has been scheduled for 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Fairfax County Government Center. Children ages 6 months to 36 months and pregnant women are eligible.
Health officials had been expecting about 120,000 vaccine shots by the end of the month but now anticipate only about 10,000 vaccine doses will be delivered. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced last week that the flu vaccine shots were taking longer to produce and that only 28 million to 30 million doses, instead of the planned 40 million doses, would be delivered to local and regional health departments by the end of October.
"Certainly the ideal would have been to have enough vaccine to be available for everyone," said Gloria Addo-Ayensu, Fairfax County's health director. "We won't have as many as anticipated but we do know who our highest target priority groups are and that's who we are focusing on. Certainly not everyone who should come down with H1N1 will be severely ill."
Vaccine is still being produced and is expected to be available in the coming weeks, Addo-Ayensu said.
But the vaccine shortage comes at a time when the spread of the H1N1 flu virus to children and teenagers has been especially acute. Earlier this month, health officials announced that 19 children nationwide had died from flu strain in a single week. Most of those children had health problems that made them vulnerable but roughly 20 to 30 percent of those who have died from the virus this flu season were otherwise healthy, officials said. As of Oct. 14, about 265,000 H1N flu vaccine doses have been shipped to Virginia.
Depending on the quantities of vaccine available each week, doses might still be made available to potentially vulnerable groups at Fairfax health department offices. Officials have promised to keep residents aware of vaccine availability through the county's flu Web site and on its Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Fred Ellis, director of the Office of Safety and Security for the Fairfax County public schools, urged parents to be patient and said teachers at county schools have been instructing children to wash their hands and cover their nose and mouth when sneezing or coughing.
Consent forms and vaccine information is available on Fairfax County's Web site.
So, let me get this straight... the "experts" in Washington have told us that the swine-flu pandemic is a potentially life-threatening hazard. The WHO (World Hysteria Organization) has called it one of the greatest potential threats to mankind in history. For the past 6-8 months the government experts have known about the supposed danger, and have supposedly been planning, developing and manufacturing flu vaccines for us.
And yet, for all the planning they have done, they can't handle the distribution load.
Now, I have no idea whether swine flu is as dangerous as they say it is. Personally, I doubt that it is that dangerous. But THEY have argued that it IS that dangerous, and they have been making their plans based on the danger that THEY say the swine flu represents. And yet their plans have come to naught, because they are having massive shortages and distribution problems all over the country.
So if this is how poorly the government handles an "emergency" that is "one of the greatest threats to mankind in history", how well do you think they are going to handle the mundane, day-to-day job of managing you regular health care?
If they can't get the swine flu vaccine right, what makes you think they are going to get your cancer treatments or your heart surgery or even your regular ongoing care right?
What makes you have so much trust in your government when they constantly demonstrate their lack of ability to accomplish their tasks?
Elliot
