SURPRISE! No Flu Vaccine Shortage At Capitol

[Bluebear]

"Hill's Doctor Urges Members to Get Shots" (Note: one day after telling seniors to stop their "panic".)

By Charles Babington and David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 20, 2004

While many Americans search in vain for flu shots, members and employees of Congress are able to obtain them quickly and at no charge from the Capitol's attending physician, who has urged all 535 lawmakers to get the vaccines even if they are young and healthy....

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.), a heart surgeon, sent letters urging his 99 colleagues to get the shots because they mingle and shake hands with so many people, his spokeswoman, Amy Call, said. She said she did not know how many senators have taken his advice.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46325-2004Oct19.html?sub=new


Wrapped in a blanket in an effort to keep warm and dry, Victoria Antaya, 60, waits with hundreds of people outside a supermarket in Barrington, R.I., for a flu clinic to open Thursday, Oct. 14, 2004. Lines have been forming at the few remaining flu clinics in Rhode Island, where state health officials say there is little flu vaccine. Hundreds of people waited for hours on Wednesday only to be turned away from supermarket clinics in Cranston and Narragansett, R.I., because each clinic had only 200 shots. Hundreds more phoned senior centers, doctors' offices and state offices seeking vaccine. (AP Photo/Victoria Arocho)

[Bluebear]

1. Is this not a potential commercial? :)

[KharmaTrain]

2. This Is All Seniors Are Talking About

My mother-in-law...far from a political gadfly...was in a major hissy fit about this. She's 70 and any health-related issue is major...especially when it involves a federally-assisted program.

The kharma jaws are starting to clamp down on this regime. The young people are pissed about a draft and don't believe Bunnypants won't start one...and now the seniors see this regime completely screwing up this simple program, highlighting all the problems they encounter with insurance companies and increasing drug costs.

Nice going, Junior!

[pacalo]

3. Unbelievable. I'd like to see this heavily publicized.

[Stephanie]

4. a GRANDMOTHER will DIE so that Tom DeLay is not inconvenienced by the FLU

This will happen.

[Bluebear]

5. You said it sister.

[DemBones DemBones]

7. NO, LOTS OF GRANDMOTHERS WILL DIE!

Those bastards!

[DemBones DemBones]

6. I have three chronic illnesses and

a heart problem and NO IDEA IF I CAN GET A FLU SHOT THIS YEAR.

I am so angry. :grr:

[Bluebear]

8. DBDB I hope the best for you

The healthy often have no conception that their bout with flu will be far easier than yours and why people are freaking out.

[DemBones DemBones]

12. Thanks! Even here at DU, people don't seem to get it about how bad

this could be. I suspect a lot of people have never actually had influenza -- just lesser viruses that they called flu. I heard a doctor who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease on television today, saying this. Sure, healthy people survive, but often wish they wouldn't while they're down with the flu.

I think there are a lot of people now who aren't old enough to have gone through a really bad flu year, with the entire family so sick there's no one to take care of
anyone, parents too sick to give more than minimal care to kids.

I got sucked into an argument with a 40-something Bush* supporter today because she was spouting the "Oh, the flu is no big deal/ it's just the media/ people should take responsibility for washing their hands, blah blah." I am so tired of the uncompassionate conservatives! I have to admit that images of her, her husband, and their three kids all sick with flu at once is going through my mind, with a soundtrack of "Instant Karma."

:evilgrin:

I hope for the best for me and everyone else, but I'm trying to tell people how bad this could be, and very frustrated with those who don't listen to the facts.

[Bluebear]

15. :grin: at the instant karma

[REP]

9. I'm So Glad I Was Able To Get Mine

I'm not elderly, but am extremely likely to die from the 'flu, and I got my shot last week. I got my pneumovax a few years ago, but my doctor always points out that it only protects me from one kind of pneumonia (something else that'd probably kill me).

Want to get really mad? See this article in The Nation:

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041101&s=siegel

"Instead of worrying about the flu, our government has been busy spending millions stockpiling over a million doses of anthrax vaccine (with no use for it in the foreseeable future), and more than 200,000 doses of smallpox vaccine (without a single case occurring here since 1949). These actions were taken so that the Department of Homeland Security can look like it takes the threat of biological agents seriously. A bioterror attack would likely affect only hundreds, or at the worst thousands, yet the expensive preparations are for millions of potential victims. BioPort makes the only anthrax vaccine, an unwieldy six-dose process that many military recruits have complained gives them a flu-like syndrome. But fearing an anthrax attack since 2001, Congress has contracted with this company for millions of dollars in vaccine production. Since the vaccine is perishable, and there is no anthrax, most of what is produced is thrown away. Similarly, panicked over smallpox in 2002 and 2003, the government purchased 291,400 doses of the antiquated live virus vaccine, which was found to have significant side-effects, including heart problems. Ultimately, only 38,549 people were vaccinated and more than 250,000 doses were discarded. Meanwhile, influenza kills approximately 40,000 people in the United States every year and hospitalizes more than 200,000."

[Bluebear]

10. Thanks for posting the article REP

All the best to you!

[DemBones DemBones]

13. Thanks for the link, REP, I'll be reading that ASAP. Glad you

got your shot. I've had the pneumonia vaccine but I think it may have been ten years so I'm calling tomorrow first thing to find out if I need a booster this year. I'm also going to call my rheumatologist and see if he has flu vaccine for his lupus patients like me, if not I'll try my OB-GYN. I just can't believe my family practice man got no vaccine this year, with all the elderly and chronically ill patients he has.

[noamnety]

11. Are the battleground states getting a better supply?

just curious.

[CityHall]

14. This is good advice - they should get it

The presidential candidates especially shake hundreds of hands per rally. I'm amazed they stay healthy even without the flu going around.

And as for the anthrax vaccines - this was a real issue in the first gulf war when Iraq actually had anthrax stockpiles and we didn't have anywhere near the vaccination capacity to protect our soldiers, let alone our allies. This is money well spent - remember, whoever sent the anthrax letters may still have some left.