Nationwide Shortage In Supply of Swine Flu Vaccine

Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that as the number of swine flu cases grows to levels unprecedented for this time of year, health officials predict a shortfall in the supply of swine flu vaccine. Forty-three children have died from swine flu since August 30 — about the same number that usually die in an entire flu season.' These are very sobering statistics,' says Dr. Anne Schuchat, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, 'and unfortunately they are likely to increase.' Projections of the supply of swine flu vaccine have widely varied. During the summer, health officials said 120 million doses would be ready in October but later dropped the estimate to 40 million doses. Now officials expect only 28 million to 30 million doses, adding that the exact number is impossible to predict and could change daily as vaccine manufacturers report that production was behind schedule. 'Vaccine production for influenza is pretty complex,' says Schuchat explaining the delay, 'and the complex process this year is taking a bit longer than we had hoped.' Schuchat warned parents with sick children to be alert for signs that medical attention is required including not eating well, difficulties breathing, and turning blue or gray. A particularly important sign is when children start to get better, then have a relapse, usually a sign that pneumonia is developing, and immediate treatment should be sought."

Comments

Influenza Vaccines are Ineffective at Best

[Philip K Dickhead]

And quite likeley fraudulent and actually harmful.

Do NOT inject contaminated virus proteins into MY bloodstream, thanks you very much!

Die Die Die

[tekrat]

I hate to be callous, but seriously, the only way for there to be "real" health-care reform in this country is for a 9-11 style incident to happen in the "health-care universe".

If many thousands of people were to die of swine flu, their deaths might cause the kind of outcry that this country needs to actually change the system. Right now everyone is listening to Faux News and heeding the "socialized healthcare == death panels" mantra.

But the system we're got right now is killing lots of children. Won't someone think of the children?

It's only after ENOUGH people die that we as a nation get off our collective butts and do something. However, this time I fear, we were fed too many divergent signals, and now we're running about in circles while people die needlessly.

So fine then, let them die. I actually hope many die. I hope it's a pandemic that wipes out a decent percentage of the populace, because it's going to take a lot of death before we have decent healthcare in the USA.

I'm tired of being told we're number one when we're really very close to being a third world nation. We need a wake up call, because we've been asleep at the wheel for over 20 years.

Unfortuantely, we'll more likely just scrape by this year, and the slow destruction of the nation will continue on it's merry way, with all the talking heads on TV arguing with one another instead of getting anything meaningful done. And they'll keep doing "just enough" to keep us in our chains.