Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (208054)	10/21/2004 6:16:16 PM
From: Alighieri	Respond to of 1570818

I cut and pasted the segment of the factcheck article as I read it. I don't know what happened to the paragraph that's now missing. I saw the same paragraph in other articles. Al ======================== Bush tries not to get stuck as flu vaccine runs short By CRAGG HINES Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle In the final days of the presidential campaign, members of President Bush's Cabinet are holding an intramural "Can You Top This?" contest to see who can tell the most outlandish whopper. ADVERTISEMENT Treasury Secretary John Snow opened the tournament with his comment last week that talk of job losses during the Bush administration was a "myth." Seeking to refine the point, Labor Secretary Don Evans chimed in: "I just don't accept that conclusion that we've lost jobs during this administration." President Bush, ever sporting, joined in the prevaricatory gamesmanship with a declaration during the third debate that he had never expressed a lack of concern about Osama bin Laden. Bush labeled Sen. John Kerry's allegation on the point "one of those exaggerations." Never mind that on March 13, 2003, the president, asked at a news conference why he did not mention bin Laden very often any more, said: "I don't know where he is. I just don't spend that much time on him really, to be honest with you." Bush added: "I truly am not that concerned about him." With such a high level of competition and so much presidential encouragement, it was not surprising that Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, one of the more garrulous members of the Cabinet, entered the contest this week by claiming that the shortage of flu vaccine "is not a health crisis." Tell that to the 36,000 people who die annually in the United States, or the 200,000 who are hospitalized, from causes associated with influenza. Those are yearly averages from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as reported by the Government Accountability Office, the agency formerly known as the General Accounting Office. Formal name changes aside, it's the same GAO that has warned repeatedly over the last four years about the perilous state of vaccine production and distribution. Academics and health professionals outside the government have been as pointed in their periodic alerts. The government response has been anemic. In May 2001, four months into the Bush administration, Janet Heinrich, director of GAO's health care division, testified before the Senate Special Committee on Aging. The title of her statement could not have been clearer: "Steps Are Needed to Better Prepare for Possible Future Shortages." Heinrich's testimony was an eerily exacting guide to what is now afoot. "Manufacturing difficulties could occur in the future and again illustrate the fragility of current methods to produce a new vaccine every year," she said. "Compounding the problem is that when the supply is short, there is no system to ensure that high-risk people have priority for receiving flu shots." On Tuesday, Heinrich was far from pleased that her forecast has come to pass. "This has been a long-standing issue," she said matter-of-factly. With luck, it will be the mild flu season that some medical analysts predict. The downside of a light year is that it will embolden policy-makers to again put off hard decisions. After three years of GAO warnings, HHS only this summer issued a draft plan for a national response to an influenza pandemic, such as the world saw three of in the 20th century. The GAO last month criticized the draft as too unspecific. That is not only bad news in terms of the current flu season but also in light of increased concerned about new diseases and the use of disease as an agent of terrorists. "The point that we're making is that the same issues apply to bioterrorism and influenza and other emerging infectious diseases," Heinrich said in a telephone interview. "They're all very much related." With Republicans in the White House and in control of Congress, there is reluctance (all right, intransigence) to impose government, federal or state control on production, distribution and allocation of flu vaccine. "That's a central issue ... , a key issue that has not been resolved," Heinrich said. The Bush administration has blamed the current vaccine shortage on virtually everyone but itself. A favorite whipping boy is, of course, trial lawyers and liability suits against pharmaceutical houses. So, it's interesting to note that the National Vaccine Advisory Committee said in a report last year that shortages in vaccines against childhood diseases "do not appear to be liability-related." Heinrich's 2001 testimony had an anecdote to warm the laissez-faire soul of the Bush administration. In April 2000, a physician ordered flu vaccine from a supplier at $2.87 a dose. When none arrived by Nov. 1, the physician placed an order with a different supplier at prices that ranged from $8.80 to $12.80 a dose. Wonder of wonders: The more expensive orders were delivered immediately, before any of the cheaper vaccine arrived. and this usatoday.com There is more...but I am sure you are not interested.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (208054)	10/21/2004 9:15:46 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1570818

That "warning" from two years ago wasn't on the web site, but hey, it's all about "ideology" to you. Blame Bush because of contaminated vaccines, and give no specifics on what Bush could have actually done, how early anyone knew about this specific shortage, or how far up the bureaucracy the warning should have traveled. You aren't this stupid, Ten. The feds were warned in August there was a problem. Nothing was done until the second warning came 5 October. There are surplus vaccines in Europe and Canada. Only now is someone from the US trying to get them. Had they done something in August, new vaccine could have been ready by the end of November/early December. Now we have to wait for the new batch to come in January/February. Those are the facts. Someone's head should roll! Instead, Bush is playing dumb! People will die this winter because of his incompetency. ted