Resolved: Any one against the public option in health care reform should not get flu shots. We can't have socialized medicine, you know?
I admit that I am not a medical expert, doctor, or whiz at how government works, but while reading an article in the Baltimore Sun this morning, I began to wonder about this flu shot business. I get the flu shot every year without thinking about how it is developed (besides knowing something about eggs), how it is paid for, and who is paying for all that. But something in the Sun started me thinking that the U. S. Government was behind it all:
Swine flu shot exceeds hopes
By Kelly Brewington
"This is very good news for the vaccination program, both with regard to the supply of the vaccine and its potential efficacy," said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. The agency is funding the American trials of two vaccines, one from drugmaker Sanofi Pasteur and another from CSL Ltd.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/...
Why, that sounds like socialized medicine to me.
But I wanted to be sure. So I dug a little deeper and found this:
CDC: U.S. may need 600 million swine flu vaccine doses
By Elizabeth Landau
Congress passed a supplemental appropriation for $7.5 billion, which President Obama recently signed, to cover the costs of preparing for the virus, which includes a vaccination campaign, CDC spokesman Thomas Skinner said.
http://www.cnn.com/...
I was still not certain, but just by luck, DemFromCT posted a diary on the front page of Daily Kos this morning about the H1N1 flu shot. I thought, heck, if his work is on the front page of Daily Kos, he must know something about this whole business, so I asked him the following:
Question (by Jack Dublin): Who pays for development,...
and distribution of H1N1, or any flu shot? Is it the U. S. Government in the U.S.?
I'm thinking it is. Wouldn't that qualify as socialized medicine?
Answer (by DemFromCT)...this has been a government funded program
which is why the vaccine is free except for admin charge.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
As I said, I am no medical expert, etc., but one thing I am fairly good at is ramming ironic points right up the backsides of the GOP, and this one to me is a dozy.
It seems to be that since flu shots in general and the H1N1 shot in particular, are government funded operations, isn't it only right that all those that stand against the public option included in any health care reform bill based on the notion that it would be "socialized medicine," not get the flu shots?
I think every Congress person who appears on any talk shows from here on out should state publicly if they will be getting any government administered flu shots and all those town hall disrupters should sign a pledge to not get flu shots for themselves and their families. Or, as eztempo suggests (see below comments):
Hell, I'd settle for their simply paying a Big PhRMA full list price for 'em.
Fair is fair.