flu-shots

“We’re stockpiling more than 4 million doses of flu vaccine for children.”

Ya know, flu vaccine works so much better if you actually give it to people. And ya know? The kids doses were all made by Aventis; there was never a shortage of those. Same amount as they planned on, all along.

But you know the sound bite will rule, and 98% of America will never question it.

More reason that politicians should never be allowed to mess with health care.

The boys received flu shots today. Since they have issues with asthma, their doctor wanted them to get shots, but of course their doctor doesn’t have any to give them and may not get any this year.

Fortunately, the pre-K had somebody come out and they gave one to my first-grader, too.

Flu shots, that is.

I found shots for the two boys, at my younger sons’ school. They’re giving shots in the morning (but no adults!) Our health care provider? NO flu shots. At all. They’re making a list of “at risk” kids (my kids are, since they are both prone to asthma / upper respiratory things) and “we’ll call you if we get some vaccine.” And this health care provider? Has something like 20,000 patients. Probably much more.

So tomorrow morning they are getting theirs, supposedly there is no shortage of vaccine for infants (I’ve read that in several places) but of course if they don’t bother to ship any to our town it doesn’t matter.

I’d like my wife to get a shot since she teaches and is going to therefore be exposed to hundreds of college kids who are NOT going to get flu shots, but like I said, we don’t have any.

I am not panicked, the tone of this post notwithstanding. I’m angry that our health care system sucks badly enough that this can happen. The flu is serious - to put it in “war on terror” terms, for every person who died on 9/11, ten die of the flu. Every year. So let’s allocate some resources to making sure we’re prepared, okay?

I don’t wish the flu on anybody, ever. Well, maybe that guy that cut me off this morning (hang up and drive, you moron), but that’s it. Question: who’s in charge of distributing the stuff? Is it going to the highest bidder? Is it some politician (if so, too bad I don’t live in a swing state)? Dumb luck?

Grr.