Another Reason Bush Must Go....

[MMouse]

in this great ad.

http://www.johnkerry.com/video/player.php?video=101604_flu

 

[Sirius]

Interesting article in the NYTimes

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/h...0&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print&position=

 

[tidoublegger]

I pray to God that the flu season isn't as bad as they're predicting. I can't even imagine needing the vaccination and not being able to obtain one. What a frightening feeling that must be.

 

[froglady]

I read the whole article. In part, the shortage is due to the lack of vaccine production in the US, due to tightening of federal standards in the 90s , which caused most companies to stop manufacturing it. Add the cost of lawsuits (many people WILL have adverse, sometimes severe or fatal, reactions to the vaccine despite the most stringent guidelines) and it was becoming too expensive for companies to continue.

The article also stated that production has been decreasing for over a decade. I recall an unsuccesful effort several years ago to grant vaccine manufacturers limited immunity from lawsuits.

Looks like another problem that this administration inherited.

 

[bsears]

"In part, the shortage is due to the lack of vaccine production in the US, due to tightening of federal standards in the 90s"

Surely that does not exuse this administration from doing nothing to improve matters? Like so many others, I grow weary of hearing how everything can be traced back to the previous administration. We have had four years with a republican president, a republican congress, etc etc etc...if they were unable to improve things with control of all aspects of the government for the past four years, why assume they wil do any better in the next four?

 

[LoraJ]

Originally posted by bsears
"In part, the shortage is due to the lack of vaccine production in the US, due to tightening of federal standards in the 90s"

Surely that does not exuse this administration from doing nothing to improve matters? Like so many others, I grow weary of hearing how everything can be traced back to the previous administration. We have had four years with a republican president, a republican congress, etc etc etc...if they were unable to improve things with control of all aspects of the government for the past four years, why assume they wil do any better in the next four?

BINGO!!!!!

:thewave:

 

[jennyanydots]

interesting how they can point out the mistakes of the previous administration but do nothing about those errors. and make more than a few of their own as well.

 

[disneyworld!]

this "flu" shortage is NOTHING new, it seems every other year this goes on!! humm...in the 90's well that would have been ..who? Clinton! his mind was else were...

 

[Paradise]

This administration and people that back it are like my kids. When I tell any of them that they can't have something, they always reply that some other kid already has one. After 4 years, bushies are still talking about Clinton. When will the buck stop with bush?
*******************************


----"The National Annenberg Election Survey found that 62 percent in the military sample said the administration didn't send an adequate number of troops to Iraq. And 59 percent said too much of a burden has been put on the National Guard and the reserves when regular forces should have been expanded instead."

 

[Bobbles]

Originally posted by disneyworld!
this "flu" shortage is NOTHING new, it seems every other year this goes on!! humm...in the 90's well that would have been ..who? Clinton! his mind was else were...

Couldn't have anything to do with a Republican controlled Congress in the 90's?

When things go well it's due to the Republican-controlled Congress and when things didn't it was Clinton's fault. Interesting.

 

[disneyworld!]

clinton was trash.....plan and simple, I am Independent but never seem to vote for the "other" party.....talk is cheap cheap cheap! nitie nite

 

[bsears]

talk is cheap, and so is calling a former president trash.

 

[disneyworld!]

why??? isn't that what you all have been doing with Bush?? the posts speak for themselves. oh, Guess it is ok for everyone to trash Bush our president for the next 4 years. but when it comes to "him" god forbid someone speaks the truth! can dish it out but not take it.

 

[Rafikifan]

Originally posted by disneyworld!
why??? isn't that what you all have been doing with Bush?? the posts speak for themselves. oh, Guess it is ok for everyone to trash Bush our president for the next 4 years. but when it comes to "him" god forbid someone speaks the truth! can dish it out but not take it.

So...I take it that you're saying they were dishing out the truth when they were trashing Bush. Well said! And Bush has been the President for the PAST 4 years. Don't get your hopes up for the next four. (Unless his brother Jeb has yet another way to "lose" voting ballots in Florida again this election. )

 

[tidoublegger]

From Medical News Today:
Why did Chiron Flu Crisis Affect USA more than England?
17 Oct 2004

Why did the British never allow themselves to become dependent on just two flu major flu vaccine suppliers like the Americans did? According to health experts, they did this in case the current Chiron flu vaccine crisis happened - to make sure the nation's people were not left in a vulnerable position.

Last August UK officials, with the same information the US officials had, decided something had to be done in case the Chiron supplies, 14% of UK supplies, went belly up. The US officials decided to believe Chiron and gamble 48% of their supplies on an assurance that everything would turn out fine despite some worrying set backs.

When October 5th arrived, the British authorities pulled the plug on the Chiron, Liverpool, supplies. US authorities were caught out - nothing had been done in advance, the country had allowed itself to get into this situation.

Even without this crisis, the UK authorities have always had a situation where they can fall back on six or seven suppliers that have been pre-approved by UK authorities. The US, on the other hand, only has two - one of which has let them down. Had the US had more pre-approved suppliers, had the US started to do something about this problem last August when alarm bells were ringing, had the US…….? This is what many Americans are now starting to ask.

The American Health Dept saw no reason last August to do anything, says their spokesman Tony Jewell. Americans hear him and ask, so why did the British have a reason, you both worked on the same information, didn't you?

America's only other supplier, Aventis, may have upped supplies if they had been asked in advance - say last August - said an Aventis spokesman. But no one from the US approached them on this matter, not till after Oct 5.

In a nutshell, one country that was 14% dependent did something early on while another that was 48% dependent did nothing.

 

[Elwood Blues]

Originally posted by MMouse
in this great ad.

http://www.johnkerry.com/video/player.php?video=101604_flu

Um....maybe you should be just as upset with the trial lawyers that helped the shutdown the other vaccine makers. Thanks to them, we only have one (in the US).

So *this* is where the hsyteria was created about the shortage that possible claimed the life of a 79 year old woman yesterday.

 

[froglady]

Originally posted by Bobbles
Couldn't have anything to do with a Republican controlled Congress in the 90's?

When things go well it's due to the Republican-controlled Congress and when things didn't it was Clinton's fault. Interesting.

And when things went well, it was all due to Clinton and had nothing to do with a Republican controlled Congress.

If Kerry wins, and things improve, it'll be due to him. If things get worse, it'll be due to the previous administration, or the Republican controlled Congress.

If Bush wins, and things get worse, it'll be his fault. If things get better, it'll be due to....? Certainly not anything Bush or the Republican Congress did.

 

[froglady]

According to the ad, Bush was warned about this problem three years ago. That would make it, what, September, October, of 2001. Hmmm...no reason for him to put it on the back burner. After all, nothing more important was happening around that time.

 

[denisenh]

Originally posted by froglady
According to the ad, Bush was warned about this problem three years ago. That would make it, what, September, October, of 2001. Hmmm...no reason for him to put it on the back burner. After all, nothing more important was happening around that time.

Sooooo.... what are you saying? President Bush can only screw up one thing at a time?

 

[LoraJ]

IIRC, during that flu season, we were all told to get flu shots because of the whole Anthrax scare going on. So, yes, he should have been concerned about a shortage then.