Now I don’t generally have a germ thing, but the hard-core attention the media has been giving the swine flu is getting to me. I can’t help it. I’m human. Every time I turn on the radio there is another report about where the infections are, how up to HALF of the American adult population may get the swine flu this year. And how, even if it won’t kill you (okay, unless you are greatly compromised, it probably won’t kill you), you’ll at the very least feel remarkably terrible for the duration.
Okay, sold. I have never had a flu shot before, but I’ll have one now. Even if it is just so that these stupid news reports can finally stop wreaking havoc on my anxiety.
But, as you know, there aren’t enough shots to go around. As you might also know, only those in the special highest risk categories — pregnant women, emergency services personnel, etc. — should be getting them right now. Except they don’t even have enough for them.
I understand that the government likes the scare-tactic news stories because they encourage those in the high risk categories to get the vaccine (something most people don’t bother doing every year), thereby slowing the spread of the flu and preventing catastrophes/death. But that they do this while not having the adequate supplies? Shameful. And that they don’t have the adequate supplies? Horrifying.
Now, I don’t know what the technicalities are in terms of making the actual vaccine. What the problem is in the process. Are there not enough facilities? Are there not enough people? What is the issue?
Realistically, I guess I don’t care. To me, simple as though it may be, it seems that it is a recession. Use the opportunity to create jobs for all the vaccine-makers, temporary as they may be. I don’t give a crap about all the bureaucratic bullshit. If it’s that serious, then, as Tim Gund says, find a way to “make it work.”
And if you can’t, for God’s sake, take a note from the 1950s and just find a way not to talk about it until you have. At least that way we aren’t all hysterical.
In the meantime, there are some free clinics around and about that are providing the vaccine for those, like me, whose doctors can’t even get a hold of it. Google something along the lines of “swine flu vaccine clinic” followed by your city/zip code and see what is around. They are technically only for those in the high risk categories, and you likely have to go stand in line for quite some time. But who cares? If you don’t fit, then go, say you are an underage pregnant mother of a 5-month-old and have asthma, and get your shot. If the government can’t sort it out for us, then I say it’s every woman for herself.
Comments
Shelly
November 30th, 2009 - 1:23:53 PM
First, it's not the government that pushes these kinds of stories, it's the media -- if a story scares, it sells. That said, I'm sure the Obama administration doesn't care all that much for reasons you have outlined (this threat is worth knowing about). Second, the main reason things have been moving slow is because Senate Republicans have put "stalls" on all of the administration's Health and Human Services nominees, including the surgeon general -- for reasons purely partisan -- leaving the department in charge of things like global pandemics, virtually empty. Third, let's calm down a little bit. No, the sky is not falling. There's no reason to scare monger. While the H1N1 virus is, indeed, dangerous to certain subsections of the population, it is largely not dangerous to the rest of us -- especially if we're aware of it, and get checked out as soon as we start to get symptoms. So your declaration to storm these helpful clinics, even if you aren't in danger, to take vaccinations from those who really need it is both cruel and ignorant. It is this sort of me first mentality that leads to death by stampede at Black Friday sales, and the like. So please, for the sake of your readers, tone it down a bit.