Vilsack Blames Bush Administration For Flu Vaccine Problems

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Gov. Tom Vilsack said the Bush administration should be held responsible for a vaccine shortage (read complete story) that could result in substantially more deaths from the flu.

Speaking in a conference call Saturday sponsored by Sen. John Kerry's campaign, Vilsack said the vaccine shortage will likely increase significantly the number of illnesses and deaths this year.

He said the vaccine shortage is "a senior citizen nightmare."

Iowa has the nation's largest population of citizens 85 and older, and has more than 1,000 flu deaths each year.

Vilsack said the Bush administration ignored a warning about vaccine supplies in a 2001 report from the General Accounting Office.

Link to entire article

Too bad. We had to put up with that idiot Branstadt long enough. I ran into a senior in the grocery store in Coralville (by Iowa City) that had to take a job doing demos because her stocks are doing so bad. She saw my Kerry button and wanted to know where to get one so she could wear it to her card club and piss off another member that's a repug. I gave her mine, I can always get another. You can really get meet some great people wearing that button!

:loveya:

She even gave me a hug right there in the grocery store. She's a very sweet old lady.

Bush mentioned bringing in vaccines from Canada. To which, Kerry should have responded, "yet the President has consistently refused to allow lower priced drugs to be imported from Canada on the flimsy grounds that they may not be up to our standards."

This is a direct quote from the third debate. You can click on full transcripts at truthout.org

http://truthout.org/

Kerry: "In the Senate we passed the right of Americans to import drugs from Canada. But the president and his friends took it out in the House, and now you don't have that right. The president blocked you from the right to have less expensive drugs from Canada."

Professor 2

...relying on Canada for a flu vaccine when he wouldn't otherwise import drugs from the Great White North.

Not that Bush would have read it either way....

Bush campaign spokesman Dan Ronayne said Kerry is trying to frighten seniors and the tactic will damage his credibility with Iowans.

I prefer they be reasonably frightened instead of dead. For Bush, everything is about the "election" and not the welfare of others.

Donate your vaccination to somebody more worthy!

Vaccine shortage to kill off the frail elderly and sick.

may vote for Kerry. We can't have that. Thin their ranks a bit. /sarcasm

eom

God what a selfish, self-involved little prick.

for wrongful death if someone die from the flu? Say someone who is at high risk but could not get the shot?

But I think Bush is immune to lawsuits for anything done as President. We have to either vote him out or hang him.

I don't actually have a problem with the death penalty.

I'm just back from a short trip to Victoria, BC -- and there were signs everywhere reminding Canadians to book appointment for their flu shots. Note: no waiting in long lines for the elderly up in modern Canada.

To tell the truth the US is seeming more and more like a third world country.

I just don't know how people can be stupid enough to vote for bush.

Oh -- also the customs agents are working for the pharmaceutical companies -- the biggest concern the "agents" had was if the older folks returning on the ferry had any over the counter meds or other meds.

This sort of behavior really reminds me of border crossings into East Berlin circa 1970s.

Kerry answered that question just right in Debate 3. He did not blame - which would have distracted - but went right to the heart of the problem - the dysfunctional Health Care and Public Health system.
Go Vilsack....wind it up.

DELUSIONAL I'm just curious where are you from. I'm from Washington State. Are the Border Patrol taking peoples pharmacutical drugs away from them if they got them in Canada?

I didn't observe any stash of prescription meds taken away -- but the women ahead of me had to take out a bottle of hand cream and open the lid for the customs guy. She said that he was trying to get her to admit that she had bought prescriptions drugs up in Canada.

I do know that some people on the trip up to Canada were intending to buy prescriptions drugs -- I overheard them talking about where they were going. Seems like this would be an easy way for retired people to make ends meet -- especially since Jefferson County seems to have so many retired people moving there.

They were checking back packs of only the older folks -- and there were a lot of retired people on the ferry. Immigration was on the Canadian side and Customs was on the US side.

The guy was absolutely disgusted that the only "thing" I brought back was a cat. He never even asked to see the health certificates etc.

I expect that the seniors who make this trip -- have talked with others who know the ropes. I didn't see any seniors pull out of line and placed in one of the rooms off to the side.

Unfortunately I wasn't watching as closely as I should have -- and only learned about the questioning that the seniors were undergoing until after I got through the line.

has ridiculous legs and speaks to everything that's wrong with Bush & Co from the ole survival of the fittest, private market fetish to the complete lack of respect for human life once it comes screaming out of a woman's body (hey welome to the world you're on your own kid...).

If the press keeps showing these poor senior citizens standing in long winding lines, and documentation comes out that the admin was warned, they'll have alot more to worry about then whether someone mentions Cheney's GD daughter.

Can you imagine the screaming coming from the TV heads if this happened under Clinton! And they have the gall to keep pushing this non story about Cheney's lesbian daughter.

Downloads: http://bigpath.net/politics/Children_Families/ChildrenFamiliesStart.html

lu season arrives like clockwork each year. But an inattentive Bush administration has put millions of Americans at risk by failing to supply adequate amounts of vaccine, highlighting the hypocrisy of Bush’s claims that he represents average Americans, while demonstrating time and again how out of touch he really is. Ordinary citizens, thousands of whom may die without the flu vaccine, are ignored by an administration obsessed with boosting corporate bottom lines for wealthy donors.

In the Oct. 13 debate, the president blamed the British for the vaccine shortage. But, Chiron, the manufacturer, is an American company, subject to FDA regulation, with a plant in England. In June 2003, the FDA found the plant contaminated with bacteria yet announced “the problems were corrected to their satisfaction,” allowing production to continue. President Bush claimed that “We took the right action and didn’t allow contaminated medicine into our country.” But that was also false. The plant’s license was revoked by the British on October 5 after they inspected it.

While research and deployment of bioterror countermeasures move at a snail’s pace, drug companies recycle massive profits into commercials for pills to improve sexual performance and combat hay fever. Drug companies enjoy some of the highest profit margins of any American industry, paying 40% less in taxes than other companies. Yet, the cost of drugs to Americans has risen at three times the rate of inflation.

When lobbyists for giant pharmaceutical companies pressured Washington to allow them to extend their patents, the Republican Congress — recipients of millions of dollars in donations from the drug companies — readily cooperated. The result was fewer low-cost generic drugs for working men and women and record profits for the pharmaceutical companies. With the campaign in high gear, phony tax breaks and promises abound, but come November 3rd, if the Republicans retain power, the needs of working men and women and their families will tumble right back down to the bottom of the barrel.

http://www.bigpath.net