Trusting The Government To Take Care Of You: H1N1 Debacle

09 Nov, 2009 by Melissa Clouthier

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So you might die if you don’t get the vaccine. It’s a National Emergency. And yet, the government is flopping around. Jennifer LaRue of the Washington Post:

A poll released Friday by the Harvard School of Public Health found that two-thirds of parents and high-risk adults who want H1N1 vaccinations for themselves or their families have been unable to get it. It’s incredibly frustrating to be doing what we think we’re supposed to be doing — taking responsibility for our health and following government exhortations to get ourselves vaccinated — only to have our efforts thwarted by lack of supply.

But to me the most unsettling aspect of the whole mess is that nobody seems to be in charge. The right hand has no idea what the left hand is doing, and straight answers are hard to come by. And as this report notes, much of the advice out there for avoiding H1N1 flu is confusing and even off-putting.

Now, I bet Jennifer is all for socialized medicine. In fact, I bet government run health care sounds good to the very people complaining about vaccine shortages.

This disconnect is what disturbs me. The government has shown itself to be a terrible steward already. The corruption, the waste. And yet, here we have Congress putting together a health care plan when it can’t deliver a stupid vaccine on time.