Archive for November, 2009

Gotta wonder.

The swine flu vaccine. Tens of thousands of doses have been paid for by the taxpayer (me) and given to the county health department.

Despite being in a high risk group for deadly complications from the disease, I cannot get one.

Why? Because I have insurance. If you are insured, you cannot get the vaccine from the health department and no private doctors have it here.

Let me repeat that…based solely on the fact that I have health insurance, I am excluded from getting the vaccine (until the government allocates it to the private physicians).

How’s that work? I get to pay my insurance so I actually have medical coverage. I get to pay taxes to buy vaccine for the county. And yet I can’t get the vaccine.

Hrumph. How about that?

For some reason the media has been excusing the swine flu deaths with the phrase, “They had underlying health conditions.” They’ve failed to mention that those “conditions” need not be major to cause serious complications with the swine flu. Simple, common things like chronic allergies/sinusitis, even minor asthma, and several other conditions that are by themselves minor, but either the condition or the drugs taken to relieve symptoms make patients particularly susceptible to the H1N1 virus. Most lung conditions that result in complications from the swine flu end in a particularly gruesome death. Essentially, while intubated and on life support, you slowly drown in your own blood.

Nice.

Now that it’s come out that the CDC has been vastly underreporting the H1N1 related deaths by many thousands, it makes information about the vaccine particurlarly important.

So…only the uninsured can get vaccinated here.

I don’t get it. I can’t think of any reason to draw that line.

Perhaps they are a test group?

Food for thought.

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer