Flu Shots

This season there is almost a mania about flu shots. There’s even folks stealing vaccine, folks selling it at exhorbitantly high prices… there even a guy on eBay that will — for $50 — tell your doctor where he/she can go buy a 10-dose supply.

My favorites though, are the states that are legislating who can have the vaccine. In Massachusetts, if you administer the vaccine to a “non-eligible” person, it’s a $50 fine and possibly six months in prison. In Michigan, it’s a misdemeanor to give the vaccine to a “non-eligible”. So now, states are diluting through legislation the Hippocratic Oath doctors in these states have taken.

Also in the news are 2,000,000 doses available in Canada that can’t be “licensed” to be distributed in the US until after the flu season is over. If the demand is so high, the quantity so short, and the vaccine is good enough for The Great White North, then why isn’t it good enough for us?

And all along, an overquoted person in power says, “This isn’t rationing, this is rational.” Total BS IMHO. This is rationing. If you have a list of who’s first, and who waits, that’s rationing — exactly the evil that many in government have warned about when looking at the healthcare systems in Canada or the UK.

Don’t get me wrong — I certainly feel that those at high risk should get the vaccine. That’s a given. You’ll save lives, and hopefully make life overall not quite so bad this season. But telling folks that it’s against the law to even give them to others is ludicrous and dangerous by taking the decision out of the hands of those who know best — physicians and healthcare workers. To them, the person asking for the innoculation is not just a member from a box of “non-eligibles” and they understand what would be best for that patient.

Do you honestly believe that those in government who are less than 65 years old, or are not among those in the other risk factors, have not had a flu shot? Arrest their doctors, quick!!!! 🙂