Sebelius admits that Swine Flu vaccines will be sent overseas before all Americans are immunized– Part 2

  We have been told for about a year now that a Swine flu outbreak could be a serious issue and that the possibility for a worldwide pandemic exists. We have been told this by the United Nations, health organizations, doctors, and Homeland Security.

  Taking all of the above at their word that the Swine flu really does represent a possible real threat to become a pandemic, and that this is not just a contrived crisis being used by the government to gain support for healthcare reform legislation, we have to ask ourselves what the government has been doing to protect us from this threat. After all, President Obama has declared a state of emergency over the Swine flu.

  There is a serious Swine flu vaccine shortage in this country and given the amount of time that we have had to prepare for this threat one has to wonder why there is not enough of the vaccine available to those groups which are most at risk. So far the only government response has been to preach to the American people the virtues of well established hygienic procedures. Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, Homeland Security Director, Janet Napolitano, and the president himself have told us to sneeze into our sleeves, wash our hands, and to stay home from school or work if we are sick. No shit, we have known these precautions for years, we do not need high level government officials to tell us this. What we need is for high level government officials to ensure that the Swine flu vaccination is made available to those at risk. They have failed.

  Much was made about the possible bird flu pandemic during the 2004 election, President Bush was run through the ringer because America was not ready for the impending pandemic. That crisis never came to pass. But here we have another pandemic that the government has warned us about and President Obama has remained blameless about his incompetence to protect the American people from the impending doom that his administration has said is coming.

  In light of the Swine flu crisis we would hope that the government would distribute the vaccine to the states in a timely manner but last week we learned that the United States will begin to divert 10% of the vaccine to foreign nations before all Americans who are in the stated risk groups have had the vaccine made available to them.

  President Obama tried to downplay this revelation as a misunderstanding, or poor communication, but today we have learned that Kathleen is still considering sending 10% of the vaccine overseas before all at risk Americans have received their vaccination.

  She admits that the government knew all along that there would be a Swine flu vaccine shortage but that the United States entered into an agreement anyway to give away vaccines to foreign countries, and she is still considering doing just that.

We knew from the outset–everybody knew from the outset–we would not have enough to immunize the 150 million Americans who fit into those five priority groups

Well, there is an 11-country partnership, which has made a commitment to make vaccines available to developing nations

  She continued by saying that as more vaccine becomes available the government would make the determination as to when the donations to foreign countries would begin. I have a radical idea, we can start the donations after to foreign countries all of the Americans who want the vaccine have received the vaccine.

  If this is truly a crisis that the American people need to be worried about, and it is the United States government that has made the American people frenzied about the Swine flu, than the United States government has the obligation to make sure that no vaccinations are diverted overseas while Americans wait in line.

  The government’s lackadaisical response to this crisis in which they had ample time to prepare makes you wonder if this was just another trumped up crisis designed to keep the American people in a constant state of panic.