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From the people who brought us the swine flu vaccine shortage - Government-run health care! UPDATED
By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
10/24/09 12:25 PM EDT
President Obama's late-night declaration of a nationwide public health emergency last night shouldn't be allowed to obscure the most important lesson of the developing swine flu crisis - The same government that only weeks ago promised abundant supplies of swine flu vaccine by mid-October will be running your health care system under Obamacare.
On Sept. 13, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, told ABC's This Week program that the government was on schedule to deliver an "ample supply" of swine flu vaccine by mid-October:
"We're on track to have an ample supply rolling by the middle of October. But we may have some early vaccine as early as the first full week in October. We'll get the vaccine out the door as fast as it rolls off the production line."
But here we are five weeks later and news reports are coming in from across the nation of long waiting lines of people wanting the shot, but being turned away because of grossly inadequate supplies. The typical explanation from public health offiials is that the swine flu vaccine requires more time to be cultivated than seasonal flu vaccine.
That's no doubt true, but did federal public health officials just discover that fact? These are the same government officials who will be in charge of your health care under the government-run health care system being sought by Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress.
And the president's declaration contains this statement that is rich with irony in the context of the debate on health care reform: "The foundation of our national approach to the H1N1 flu has been preparedness at all levels -- personal, business, and government -- and this proclamation helps that effort by advancing our overall response capability," according to Fox News.
The declaration will allow waiving of federal regulations on a case-by-case basis. But how will we waive an entire government-run health care system?
Here's something else to think about: How will Obama and congressional Democrats seek to take advantage of this public health crisis? This is, after all, the administration that never lets a good crisis go to waste, right?
UPDATE: H.L. Mencken would understand instantly
Ralph Benko reminds us of these words of wisdom from the old Baltimore curmudgeon: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”
UPDATE II: Vaccination line Hell
Theblogprof reports from Oakland County, Michigan, where the vaccination wait was 5-7 hours. Don't miss the video. As theblogprof notes: This is "a prelude to what will happen under Obamacare."
UPDATE III: Simmons says not so fast
Chuck Simmons, the Rochester Infectious Disease Examiner and a blogger whose opinion I greatly respect, thinks criticism of the government for not getting sufficient supplies of the swine flu vaccine distributed is unfair. He also addresses worries about the content of the vaccine.
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