No flu vaccine shortage is reported outside U.S. - IHT

[Dems Will Win]

No flu vaccine shortage is reported outside U.S.

PARIS - While patients are panicking over a shortage of flu vaccines in the United States, vaccination programs in the rest of the world are progressing normally with a good supply of medicine, health authorities say.

In Asia, countries like Japan and China manufacture at least some of their own flu vaccine, and no shortages have been reported to date to international health groups. But flu vaccination policies differ from country to country, and the shots are not part of national vaccination campaigns in Asia.

In Japan, some prefectures subsidize the vaccine for the elderly, but generally flu vaccine is purchased only by those who want it and can afford the shots.

"As far as we are aware, there are no shortages of flu vaccine and no panic," said Roy Wadia of the World Health Organization in Beijing.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/10/21/news/vaccine.html

ONLY HERE! WHAT A SCREWUP! THIS INFO SHOULD BE SPREAD AROUND PEOPLE!

[skylarmae]

1. is this all a hoax by THEM - petrified with fear tactics? n/t

[Trillo]

2. "Plenty of anti-viral in the U.S.,"

CNN reported on TV the yesterday or the day before. Even though there was a shortage of flu vaccine in the U.S., there was plenty of anti-viral available!

That tells me all I need to know. Tin-foil hat time: an engineered crisis, designed to stop the prevention of a disease, so more people will visit their physicians, pay for the office visit, pay for the anti-viral. In short, treatment circulates more dollars through the health-care system than does prevention: therefore prevention is not-desired by the greedy.

Since anti-virals are relatively newer medicines, this insures there's "consumer" money for the newer products.

[leftchick]

3. * misadministration needs to be held accountable for this!

at the polls! :)

[progressivebydesign]

4. My Mom, a DUer, finally got a shot yesterday!

She's in the high-risk group, and was facing the prospect of no shot. She was lucky to drop into ther doctor's office for something else. She mentioned the flu shots, even though they have signs saying none are available.. and they said the received only a "few" doses, and were tyring to figure out how to dole them out.. they felt incredibly guilty for not being able to give them to all patients that are in the high-risk group. The doctor felt my Mom was shot-worthy, and got one of the remaining shots. That's great for her, but even though she's absolutely high-risk, she felt guilty for all the other seniors in her community that would go without. The high-risk people can't use the flu mist, that the government was touting yesterday... and I think the flu season usually hits in December, so the govt saying things will be here in January, is no comfort.

[Auntie Bush]

5. My husband has cancer and he can't get a shot. Bummed in VT.

[Skittles]

19. tell your mom she has no reason to feel guilty

make sure she knows WHO SHOULD FEEL GUILTY

[oldcoot]

6. Didn't Bush recently run a political ad about health care?

Didn't this ad state that if the government got involved in health care we would have rations?

[VegasWolf]

7. Yeah, but the rest of the world doesn't have blinky eyes as

fearless and wise leader. Have to keep the sheep terrorized
so that they vote Repugnant. Who cares if a few elderly die,
they would have gone in a year or so anyway!!

New Information Shows Bush Indecisive, Paranoid, Delusional

[daa]

8. Socialized health care like the rest of the world won't work

Nothing compares to US healthcare. Right. Its benefits enrollment time and every year it is the same, more money for less healthcare.

[chookie]

9. Oh -- have they already adopted Bush's plan?

Bush has said that if it weren't for pesky ambulance chasers like John Edwards, who extort the hard-earned pennies of the pharma companies, this never would have happened. Boy -- I didn't know that Paris, and China, and Japan, and Canada -- were all such havens of free enterprise, leaving the big decisions to wise CEOs, who understand complex issues far more than say, public health experts. :eyes:

Under Bush's proposal, companies like the incompetent Chiron will never have to face legal consequences.

It's bad enough that many corporations already operate under the notion that it is cheaper to get caught breaking the law and paying restitution than it is to follow the law. They don't want We The People to have any recourse against these greedy and incompetent sons of bitches.

Remember the collapse of the tech sector? A lot of that had to do with piratical entrepreneurs getting into an industry that they had absolutely no comprehension of. Remember the collapse of the once conservative savings and loan industry? Same unaccountable bastards. And now these shitheads are operating in pharmaceuticals.

On CBS a few months ago, when a CEO was asked why his company was not producing new antibiotics, which are URGENTLY needed, he said we are under no moral obligation to do so -- our obligation is only to our shareholders. I say -- FUCK THAT! Tens of thousands of people are going to die because of his fucking stockholders, when people like him choose to shill drugs like Viagra on tv every ten minutes, rather than develop vaccines and antibiotics.

Time to get public health needs OUT of the profit sector, and into the hands of experts in medicine and public health!

[yellowcanine]

10. But Bill Frist and Rick Santorum got flu shots! Santorum is not even 50

and as far as I know he has no chronic disease that would put him in a high risk category. Likewise Frist is at most early fifties?
FLU-GATE!

[Dems Will Win]

11. I think all of this flu shot fiasco is going to sink Bush

more than anything in the last 2 weeks.

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. It's our October Surprise

for the repukelicans.

[AP]

12. Because no other country has such a profit-motivated health care industry

as the US's.

Check out snopes on the Edwards-caused-shortage story. They quote from an article that pretty much shows how we don't have the flu vaccine in big enough supplies because it isn't PROFITABLE for companies to make it.

[Dems Will Win]

13. COUGH!

[AP]

14. to be clear, the flu vaccine isn't expensive to make. It's just that it's

not the best, most productive use of drug company resources. They have a 360 billion dollar market they're chasing and the influenze market is only worth 6 billion so nobody wants to make the vaccine.

Hmm. Maybe the marketplace isn't the best place to make sure you stay healthy.

[durablend]

15. "Bleed em dry..."

"Then bump em off"

All about the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$, nothing else matters.

[VegasWolf]

16. I just talked with my family in Fla., they blame the democrats!!!

Oh well, didn't need to go home anyway!

Cheney to *, "Sir the American insurgents ( err, democrats ) are rioting!"
* to Cheney, "Good God, what are we going do?"
Cheney to *, "Don't know about you, but I'm getting back to Halliburton."

New Information Shows Bush Indecisive, Paranoid, Delusional

[Dems Will Win]

18. Wheeze!