Flu shot shortage poses public health disaster

[stray cat]

Preventing a public health disaster http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6291712/#survey

Someone approached me the other day whose life you hold in your hands. John Stuart Katz is at high risk of dying if he gets the flu. It is up to you not to kill him. And it is up to your government to do more than it has to date to make sure that you cannot insist on putting his life at risk. When I spoke with him recently, Katz wanted to know if I had any “connections” to help him get a flu shot. Five years ago he underwent a kidney transplant using an organ donated by his wife. At 66, Katz takes medicine that helps his transplanted kidney keep working, but which also weakens his immune system. As a professor, he is constantly exposed to coughing and sneezing in classrooms. But his doctor has no flu vaccine and Katz is afraid he might die if he catches the flu. And he should be worried since he's in a very high-risk category.
We are facing a potential public health disaster and bolder steps are needed. The federal government should declare a national emergency and so should state officials. More than 30,000 people die each year from the flu — and that is when we have a lot more vaccine to go around. This season could be far worse than usual in terms of deaths.

First, the government needs to take control of all flu vaccine supplies. It needs to insure that doctors and nurses only give these shots to people, like Katz, who need them the most. The government also needs to levy stiff fines against any health-care institution that knowingly gives vaccine to any patient not in a high-risk group. And it needs to lower the regulatory barriers that keep vaccines used in Canada, Britain, France, Taiwan and Japan from entering this country.

I would like to think that when faced with a moral crunch most Americans do the right thing.  And most of us have done so in the face of this crisis. But it does not take a lot of people conniving to get to the front of the flu-shot line to put other people’s lives at risk.

C’mon Washington. Let's go governors. Make it a crime to try and shove old people, babies and the chronically ill out of our lifeboat. Don’t make Katz and others like him beg for their lives.

Arthur Caplan is director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.

[scottxyz]

1. Silly liberals - believing in regulation and socialism

Don´t they know that the ´free market´ and ´competition´ are the best way to do important things, like provide flu shots and maintain our electrical grid?

If electric companies can´t be bothered to upgrade their power lines (resulting in blackouts), and vaccine manufacturers can´t be bothered to make enough vaccine to protect us (resulting in thousands of deaths), well - the free market has spoken!

What do liberals and socialists think - that it´s the government´s job to provide electricity and flu shots for everyone??

[Deere_John]

2. Capan is absolutely right but...

There isn't enough vaccine and no matter what we do, we're still fucked.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. You should just about have enough

if it is all used properly, ie via central control.

58 million doses available
2 million nasal vaccines (can be used for healthcare workers and caregivers)

US population 65+: 36 million
6-24 months: 6 million
women pregnant at some time in 1 flu season: 6 million? (about 4 million children born a year; allow for some miscarriages)
people aged 2-64 with 'underlying chronic medical conditions': I don't know (I don't know if any condition qualifies, or just some). There are 12 million doses to cover them and the health workers - probably not enough if everyone wants it. But some people who are in these high risk groups won't come forward for a vaccination anyway. So I think a highly organised program would be able to cover the priority groups.

[Oak2004]

6. No, not all health problems

It's a short list of mostly immunosuppressed people and people with respiratory diseases.

Unfortunately, I'm on that short list.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Good luck with the flu shot

and your chronic illness.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Public, Safety & Welfare. Back in ancient times, there was an organizatio

that was in charge of that...I think it was called...government. OH, not the kind of government we have today which is really just an enabler for corporations, but a government of the people.

What a dinosaur, eh? In a world of 6 Billion people, we are disposable units.

[Robeson]

5. Welcome to our Blade Runner Corporate Country...

...And pretty soon, Soylent Green.