Too Big to Get the Flu?
By Pat Racimora on November 6, 2009 at 11:30 PM in Current Affairs, Health Care, Influenza Pandemic
First the taxpayers’ treasure was raided to bail out Wall Street firms. Now it’s happening to 13 of them again, this time by putting their employees ahead of the highest risk groups among us ordinary folks to receive the H1N1 vaccine. Melanie Sloan, the Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington put it best: “In what world do Wall Street employees deserve to be vaccinated ahead of high-risk children, pregnant women and health care workers?”
So, while millions of our vulnerable citizens falling into the Center for Disease Control’s high risk category are still waiting for vaccinations to become available, some fat cats have pushed their way to the head of the line again.
Business Week reports:
A spokeswoman for Goldman, who asked not to be named, said the company had just received the vaccine and did not yet have information as to how it would be distributed, saying that Goldman will supply vaccine only to those who qualify as high-risk, per the CDC requirements. Citigroup had not responded with a comment as of the evening of Nov. 2.
However, as CREW Director Sloan so slyly responds:
Although CREW has been unable to uncover the demographic makeup of Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and JP Morgan Chase, it seems safe to assume the vast majority of their employees are not pregnant women, infants and children, young adults up to 24 years old, and healthcare workers.
How did this happen? No one appears to be talking yet, except, perhaps, money.
(Release: November 13)
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Unbelieveable! And yet….I believe it.
The world has gone crazy.
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If
then I don’t see a huge problem. The people getting the vaccine would be in the same pools as the people getting it first in other places.
Of course based on their track record, we can believe their statement, right, wonderful corporate citizens that they are?
Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO
Stan I think you might have missed this point:
“it seems safe to assume the vast majority of their [Goldman et al] employees are not pregnant women, infants and children, young adults up to 24 years old, and healthcare workers.”
The pregnant women, etc, etc. are “suppose” to be first in line. And right now there’s a reported vaccine shortage.
Maybe you and Solara 9 missed MY point. If we can believe what Goldman said, any employees getting the vaccine would would be in the top priorities to get it. If they don’t have very many of those, so be it. At that point the question would be how Goldman would handle the remaining vaccine. Could it be returned for redistribution to places experiencing a shortage?
Stan
Also, it doesn’t say how much vacinne they received. Maybe they only got enough for the employees most at risk. Another headline grabber from the news.
CREW is a legitimate watch dog group–they aren’t about to make something out of nothing.
Stan, How many infants, health care workers, pregnant women, children, and young adults under 24 work for Goldman Sachs or any of the WS firms?
I’d say mighty few!
Please do not take offense as none was intended. However! The above conversation only serves as a convincing testimony on the current state of education provided.
Neither taking sides, nor passing judgement on levels of comprehension, but merely observing this very common occurrence ALL over the internet, one really wonders, is this seeming breakdown of the english language part of a greater conspiracy?
When half the country cannot understand the other half, misunderstandings will take place and misunderstandings breed distrust.
The 30% rule for Internet discussions
I’ve been a moderator/owner of several Yahoo! groups for over six years now, including the original Draft Clark group whose message volume was overwhelming in 2003 and early 2004 and over 1500 members. We had many of those misunderstandings you described.
One of my fellow co-owner/moderators articulated the “30% rule” for Internet discussions: You must 30% nicer in your postings than you would have to be face-to-face, and you must similarly 30% more tolerant of what others say.
I thought it was a pretty good rule.
Stan
Stan,
That’s probably a rule I’ve been following without having it articulated.
That’s a great rule, Stan. I appreciate your articulating it. (As for the present discussion, i won’t weigh in, but i liked your rule so much that i just had to say so.)
OT: I visited my doctor this week and was unable to get the regular flu vaccine because the entire region is out. They actually had the H1N1 which I declined, telling them to save it for high-risk people. They told me it’d be at least two weeks before I can get the annual vaccine, which is frustrating but there it is.
An excellent rule. Thanks for suggesting. Tone is so hard to read in a typed posting, so it’s much more important to try to be clear and not jump to conclusions about what someone is saying/asking.
This is sickening. Pun entirely intended.
The Obama administration looks worse than the Bush administration for amateur hour antics.
Hopefully, CREW can get us the NAME of the administration official who designated Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan as “critical need” for this vaccine. Inquiring minds want to know.
This has nothing to do with education.
The disconnect between people in this type of conversation seems to be that it is very difficult for some people to believe that a person can stand there, look you straight in the eye, and blatantly lie to you.
My husband has that deficiency. He just cannot believe a bald-faced lie delivered straight to his face because he is incapable of doing that himself. He’s just a very nice person.
Fortunately he is married to me, and I can easily smell it.
So if Goldman Sachs says they will only give it to high risk groups, the nice people will wonder what they will do with the leftover vaccine.
The not-so-nice people, like me, will simply say “LIARS!”
Who believes anything anyone says anymore Stan? The media, politicians and big business have screwed us over so much that unless I saw it for myself, I would put it down as so much hogwash.
I heard this the other day, Pat, and could not believe it. Obviously, these financial wizards and crooks feel they’re “the” most important segment of the population [love the arrogant expression you gave Mr. Important].
Have a feeling the public will receive this tidbit as well as the now-ditched plan to give Gitmo prisoners preference for the vaccination.
The insanity never ends!
My God, I heard this about the Gitmo detainees. Happy to hear that it’s been ditched.
Got my seasonal flu shot yesterday through the Visiting Nurses Association and H1N1 from my Dermatologist’s office last week. A bit concerned for my pregnant daughter-in-law.
Has your daughter-in-law been caught in the shortage crunch, Annie? That “would” be scary. Hope she’s okay.
My daughter is going to deliver in about 4 weeks and I don’t think her doctor has been able to give her the shots yet.
Because we’re going to be taking care of a newborn, my husband is trying to find shots for us and our son. We’ll probably be fine, but I’m pretty fed up with our Government of Goldman Sachs.
I forgot to ask them last time we spoke…we were focused on talk about getting work. However, she does have an appointment coming up for tests (just barely past 1st trimester) so I’ll remind them to see about getting the vaccine. We are a couple of hundred miles away or else I’d have taken her with me when I got mine.
Maybe someone should explain to them that “high risk” relates to health issues, rather than to the way they’ve made their business decisions.
Is it any wonder so many people don’t want the government in control of health care? The bureaucrats always manage to screw things up and seldom get their priorities straight. Politics and money always get in the way.
By the way, who decides who gets the vaccine when? Who decided that the GTMO detainees and Goldman would get it ahead of other places with no or little of the the stuff?
Something else: The last time I looked, Goldman Sachs wasn’t a hospital, doctor’s office, clinic, or some other flavor of health care provider. How did such a corporation get its own vaccine instead of letting their employees make their own decisions about if, when, and where to get it?
Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO
I just saw up-blog that the GTMO thing has been ditched. Sanity prevails. But the principle I described still applies.
Stan
The Gitmo thing was retarted to begin with. The prisoners are already in a quarantine like environment. If all the workers there got vacinated and lawyers and vistors only allowed to talk through a window like I am sure they are already, then the prisoners can be cut off from being exposed to the virus, since anyone comming into contact with them would have been innoculated already with vaccine.
It was all a big show to make Obama look sympathetic to the UN.
Goldman got their supply from the NYC Health Department. They are the ones who have some ’splaining to do. Why did a city department direct H1N1 vaccine to Wall Street instead of to the city’s many children and birthing hospitals? Maybe the city’s very rich, very powerful newly -elected Mayor wants to take a stab at answering that question?!
Hey, they are the ones that underwrote all the production of the vaccine. What are you complaining about? You don’t think they should get there cut first?
Pat thank you for rasing the issue. This was on radio headlines. I hear the CDC spokesman express frustration at the lack of critical supply and the day before this story came across the radio.
.
Looking for the laws governing distribution and who gets what in what priority. Perhaps there is “transparent” reason for this.
Am I the only person who has never and never wants to get a flu shot?
I can raise my hand on that one. I had the Asian flu as a kid [late 50s, I think]. Never had a flu shot and I do not intend to break my record this year. My in-laws got the swine flu shot in the early 70s. Sick as dogs. That swore me off flu innoculations.
But if the Black Death rolls through town? Then yes, I’d consider a shot.
The way things are going , if the black death was coming through this area, i think i would lick someone’s soars.
LMAO–How gothic!
Oooooo. I think I’ll pass on kissing those sores, Vince.
But you made me laugh [and then wince].
I was forced to take the swine flu shot as a soldier in the 70s. I can attest to the fact that it made me sick for a week and I had symptoms for two weeks so I won’t be taking it this time around. I have taken other types of flu shots with no discernible problems, however.
No, you are not Vince. I had the Hong Kong flu in ‘68 and have never gotten a flu shot since. I think I am immune for life…lol
No you are not alone. I have never had a flu shot and I am 63.
Friday, 30 October 2009
By Ross Colvin
.
What is Goldman Sachs invesment portfolio in these companies?
In my opinion this is exactly why Obama declared this an emergency. Now his HHS gets to make the decisions on who gets the shots and who gets Tamiflu, etc. I hope blogs like this one will get the attention of the msm. I can’t believe even MSNBS would support this. I’m sure they were hoping this would never come to light.
And they want to run healthcare…
Obama frustrated with companies over flu vaccine
.
.
Shall I continue?
.
Grrr. The Good, The Bad and the Spammed.
Shameless! Just shameless!
Thanks for making me aware of this, Pat!
Here’s that 30% (more or less):
http://www.fiercebiotech.com/press-releases/novartis-names-jonathan-symonds-deputy-cfo-and-cfo-designate.
Okay, how many “at risk” employees can they have in those two offices? How many pregnant females are working there? If they are parents concerned about their kids, the kids should be on a priority list with their pediatricians. Looks like they’re just greedy bastards about everything!
I don’t think it’s so much “greed” as a sense of entitlement. They are the elite and so they are entitled to be the first to get whatever is needed.
They are the elite so they get the best health-care.
They are the elite so their ideas are the only ones important, their issues, and solutions, the only ones worthy of attention, their families and friends and associates the only ones worthy of having the best of everything.
They are “entitled” because they are the elite.
They may mouth their little speeches about helping all the unfortunates out here in the real world, but they are no more concerned about us then they are about their pets. No, they are more concerned about their pets whom I am sure receive better health care.
Beware an elitist offering help. They will inflict the “help” they think you need not what you may really need. Because they know best; or they are convinced that they do.
Why else would they come up with a healthcare plan supposedly to help people that instead inflicts punishment on people if they don’t or can’t do what the elites tell them they must do. Beware the elites, the destroyers of worlds!
Wow, K. Well said!
2 thumbs up! Whoops, using the new 30% rule (which I love) make that 2 and 2/3 thumbs up!
“Elites”?
Are the democrats really the main political frontmen for wealth, power, and privilage in America?
And that’s exactly the point, Ferd. As far as believing Goldman Sachs et al?
Hahahaha! Got a bridge to sell you. :0)
I believe everyone should get a flu shot except anyone who’s ever had a severe reaction to a flu vaccination, infants under 6 months old and anyone with a fever. If your child does need a flu shot, your pediatrician is the best place to start looking, but if they aren’t offering flu vaccine this year, you might check with your local health department, hospital, or pharmacies, and get one wherever you can.
Vulgar isn’t it.
Let’s look at it this way–giving a WS firm H1N1 leaves a terrible impression on those who might need it but can’t get it. Couple that with demonstrable evidence that perception is reality for a good number of the electorate, then the conclusion has to be that this was a really stupid thing to do.
Pat, you ask in your excellent post with great toon, “In what world…” I think the answer is simple: In Obama World, this makes sense.
Sigh.
And Stan, thanks for the thoughtful parameters! Well said!
We live in CT. No vaccines available - seasonal or H1N1. My 13 year old has H1N1, now pneumonia; my husband caught H1N1 from her…we have friends in MA, one hour north of here whose HEALTHY children, in no risk categories, have had BOTH vaccines. Huh? I’ve called Dodd’s and Lieberman’s offices, rumors that they’ll investigate. ha
By the way: H1N1 is MISERABLE. Sickest my daughter has ever been. Think carefully before you turn down a chance to get vaccinated…
I pray your family gets well soon. I have a friend who worked for the CDC and he says that when it comes to this sort of thing they are extremely disorganized. It is clear that the vaccine has NOT been distributed according to the CDC directives.
My gosh! What is happening in CT? I hope your family recovers soon. Pneumonia is scary!
As a local public health professional in MA, I can tell you it is not so easy over here either. The distribution system for not only vaccine, but supplies and money, is so filled with goverment bureacracy it is slowing down response to a crawl.
The difference is that local goverments in MA have a more active role in public health. So once the Feds and the State are done with their red tape and pencil-pushing, MA cities and towns can move quickly to get out the vaccine to where it is needed most in our communities. That’s probably the difference you are seeing. Simple concept really. Who knows better how to reach the people in a specific community the fastest? HHS Kathleen, a governor appointee in the statehouse, or your local public health offical?
Well heck Pat, if the folks at Goldman Sachs get too sick to man their high-frequency computer trading programs, market manipulation will stumble and fall, and stocks are liable to start crashing again. I’m sure you will agree that the NYSE is “too big to fail!”
Ouch, oowawa.
You’ve been keeping up with Denninger, eh? I’m sure he’d have a few choice words on this.
Hi Peggy Sue. Yep, I read Market Ticker every day, even though it’s not good for my blood pressure.
Whoops–The Almighty Spam Filter did severely rebuke my post and cast it into the Lake of Fire. Please rescue! Thanks. (I am beginning to suspect that a certain trigger may be “G-ldman S-chs”)
Ow
Ow
Ow
And it burns, burns, burns… that ring of fire.
Just for you, oowawa:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idbIWZzEMBA
Thanks, Ferd. Frank is an inscrutable sardonic musical Groucho, as always.
That he was.
I went in and fished it out oowawa–I can’t let any of your wonderful comments get lost in that murk of Viagra and porn ads and other stuff that actually belongs there!
Thank you Pat; I appreciate it.
I don’t know about the procedures for obtaining vaccine, but our former company had nursing staff who routinely gave flu shots as well as general blood work etc.
We missed a golden opportunity to receive shots when we bypassed a station on a recent shopping trip.
My granddaughter was diagnosed with a mild case of flu on Thursday, when her school was offering shots. Bad timing all around for us!
There is an interesting ethnicity in the cartoon that suggests a subtle point: a dark hand administers the shot to the smugly satisfied white executive. The dark pregnant lady waits in sorrow. Who did she vote for? The white woman with kids is equally forced to wait. This is not the type of Change that these folks voted for. They thought that they would be empowered, but the same old power and money still command privileged access.
Well, NQ and the regulars did WARN them over and over that this new boss was just the old boss with different wrapping. Perception, reality, and their lack of real association rears its pesky head again.
Once again the Obama “administration” takes care of its constiruents. Too bad most of America does not qualify for it. I guess that the rest of us didn’t pump enough money into his campaign.
That should have been “constituents”.
For sure. That is some “change” he brought to the WH and to politics. I have yet to see a single bot who can rebut the assertion that our feckless leader is only more of the same and not very adept at “more of the same”.
But they sure keep on trying, Ferd.
And do they ever. Wow! The Energizer Obots–they just keep lying and lying and lying….
And what does this tell us about the way government health care will be run?
Maybe it tells us something more important about how effectively the entire system would respond to an Avian Influenza pandemic. (Bird Flu, remember? A mutated Bird Flu virus could make Swine Flu seem like a walk in the park.)
The real reason for the current seasonal and swine flu vaccine shortages is that it isn’t being manufactured quickly enough. Health care services can’t distribute what doesn’t exist.
I loved the movie about Sirius XM: “Stock Shock” because it explains how the whole naked short selling stock market manipulation thing works-and how the company nearly went bankrupt. Good DVD. Amazon has it or stockshockmovie.com has a movie trailer.