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.

The Obama administration is talking about a second flu vaccine this year (a series of two shots) in addition to the normal flu season vaccine. The second set of shots would addressing Swine Flu or H…….H……..whatever the H they are calling it now that they changed the name.

A rose by any other name is still the Swine Flu.

The Obama administration is considering an unprecedented fall vaccination campaign that could entail giving Americans three flu shots — one to combat annual seasonal influenza and two targeted at the new swine flu virus spreading across the globe.

I really see nothing different about their plans other than they are going to try to kill you add two more shots (if necessary) to the recommended flu season shot regimen. That is, I see no indication that they are going to forcibly line us up over at a FEMA camp and shoot us up simutaneously with a flu shot, a GPS tracking device and a microchip. What I do see is the same program that has always been in existence. They recommend who should get the shots and make the vaccine available.

“We are moving forward with making a vaccine,” said Robin Robinson, a director with the Department of Health and Human Services who oversees pandemic response programs. Robinson said that although a formal decision about the swine flu vaccine has not been made, if the government goes ahead, it would probably produce two doses for all Americans. If the threat diminishes, he said, health officials could decide to produce doses for only a portion of the population.

In other words, they are going to make the Swine Flu vaccine up ahead, for use in the event that people start dropping like flies. Since it takes five months to develop a vaccine, this is called “planning ahead”. They will then be able to decide whether they need to produce enough doses for recommended target groups or whether they need to produce enough for all of the USA.

What I also see planned is, as when our government panicked in 1976, they will be tracking to see how many people die from the shot who probably would have lived if they didn’t get the shot.

Memories of the nation’s earlier experience with a swine flu vaccine present another challenge. In 1976, hundreds of Americans developed neurological disorders after they were vaccinated for a swine flu strain. The public was asked to receive one of two vaccines developed to combat the strain.

Let’s face it gang. The only thing our government learns from history is how to repeat it exactly. Otherwise, there doesn’t seem to be anything new here, other than concerns on how to help the dumbed-down American public be able to track which flu shot they had already and which they didn’t have if another set of shots is added to the regimen. So much to think about! Funny now, if that check from the government doesn’t arrive on time, people have no problem remembering it’s due, but hey, what can I tell you.

A record-keeping system would also need to be devised to track which doses patients have received, health experts said.

Without such a system, patients could lose track of which of the three shots they have received or could fail to get the second swine flu inoculation at the proper time.

“We will have to keep them straight and separate,” Vanderbilt’s Schaffner said. “This will be an enormous challenge, and we haven’t figured out how to do it yet. That’s one of the things we are trying to sort out.”

They could probably solve that education problem by placing their public service announcements in the middle of American Idol, Who Wants to Be A Millionaire– or other dumbed- down programs which keep the masses occupied while our politicians and their friends rob us blind of our freedom, money and future.

So as far as I can see, nothing that is planned is far from the planning path of the past. It’s just more publicized, because, let’s face it, the Obama administration enjoys providing us with a crisis a week. That way, we won’t notice what else is going on, and that’s no conspiracy theory either. It’s just typical DC politics.

So, as of this moment, I see the same flu season plans as the past. If you want to take the chance on the shots, Hakuna Metata. Otherwise you take the chance on catching the flu. It’s your choice. I myself have never had a flu shot in my life and I’m not about to start now. But I see no indicator here that the Obama administration is going to round me up as part of the “resistance” and force that shot upon me. If I see anything that changes my mind, I’ll let you know.

Thought you might want to see the outfit I wore to the supermarket yesterday. It was a little rough driving in it, and bathroom runs were hell, but otherwise, people hardly even noticed.

Stay at home locked in a bubble. 

Touching me, touching you.   How many ways are there to touch each other?

Seriously.

Yes, I am a Red Sox fan and Sweet Caroline is our song that replaced the dearly loved Tessie due to political correctness.

But today I wanted to write to those who fear the touch.  In reality you are screwed so why bother.

Today I got to work and made my coffee grabbing the bag of Pete’s.  Who may have touched that bag while it was on the shelf?  When the coffee was ready i retreated to my office, sat down and pulled out the banana I brought from home.  Who touched that banana, what snotty nosed kid picked it up and put it back?

Come on, let’s all think of what we touched today.  I even used my Purell today after putting the gas nozel in my car.  Then I went into the store and grabbed a coke from the cooler and a pre-packaged sandwich(fresh today).  I touched the handle of the door walking into the store then the handle of the coke case and the coke bottle itself.  Then i picked up two or three sandwiches before deciding to take the roast beast.  3 more touches.  Then the real biggie.

I reached in my pocket and pulled out my cash.  Yeah, that stuff must be real clean.  Gave the check out guy my $10 and took change back.  A couple of bucks, a nickel and a penny or two.  Oy how many touches was that encounter with a guy who touches a boatload of people every day?

But back to work.  I touched my bosses keyboard when I had to fix his latest brain fart then I touched my intern’s keyboard in order to start a new process i was showing him. 

I came home to meet a plumber who is here now trying to take my last dollar.  While he’s fixing a toilet for more than it would cost to replace it, I went and got the mail.  Ah, the mail person touched my mailbox handle but the mail peeps along the way also touched my mail.  Better put on gloves before I open the mail.

Is it just me or do you see the futility of trying to avoid the flu?  No I won’t be touching strangers in the subway or asking the person in the elevator to cough my direction but beyond the extremely obvious I think there is only so much we can do.  It’s like the WHO official I heard on the radio said.  Perhaps the only really truthful thing I’ve heard this week.  He said that trying to contain the virus is a waste of resources, we have to put our money into the comfort of those who catch it.

I’ll go further.  I never wash my coffee cup at work.  I rinse it.  I don’t wash the coffee pot either.  Growing up, my family had a community cup in the bathroom that we all used to rinse our mouths with.  Now that is gross.

I rarely get sick and I am convinced that those who raise their kids and themselves to avoid germs are the ones who get sick most often.  We are social animals and we need to share our immunities and our pathogens.

Oh yeah.  I never wash my hands after using the public restroom because one, I’m a lazy ass guy and two, I think the towel holder or hair dryer are both filthier than my dinky.

Cross posted from Partizane.com

Virginia’s Smithfield Foods CEO Larry Pope speaks with much careful persuasion against the suspicion of the partially Smithfield-owned CAFO, or mega pig farm, at La Gloria, was the source of the A/H1N1. The interview drags on, but Pope makes is good points right away.

No pig is sick at La Gloria, no pig worker is sick – and neither is a pig or a pig worker sick anywhere else in the Smithfield system.

Pope speaks under fire. The Smithfield stock has dropped 20% in the past days. Only 20%, because, if it was proved that El Gloria was the source, then the stock would have been crushed. Pope says a major team is headed to La Gloria to do a thorough audit.

His remarks come after the surprising news from California that two children fell ill with the A/H1N1 on March 30 and April 1. One ten year-old boy in San Diego County, now recovered; and one nine year-old girl in Imperial County, now recovered. Neither is known to have had contact with pigs. It is illogical to argue that Edgar Hernandez at La Gloria is Patient Zero. Unless and until the virus is found in the one million pigs at La Gloria, Veracruz State, the outbreak origin remains unknown.

New, fretful, confusing reports from the California border indicates that the A/H1N1 virus was in California before five year-old Edgar Hernandez fell ill on April 2 in La Gloria, Veracruz state. California epidemiologists have located two cases of children in Southern California, a ten year-old boy in San Diego County and a nine year-old glrl in neighboring Imperial County, who fell ill before Edgar Hernandez.

A former parishioner sent this to me tonight. Now, I know this is a serious issue, and we must take care. But sometimes when things are the most frightening, a little humor goes a long way.

That being said, allow me to share this Swine Flu Tip with you.

DON’T DO THIS:

So, it’s an open thread. What’s going on in your world?

NBC NY: “Vice president Joe Biden said today he would tell his family members not to use subways in the U.S. and implied schools should be shuttered as the swine flu outbreak spread to 11 states and forced school closures amid confirmation of the first U.S. death.”

Congressman Joe Sestak was on Morning Joe and intimated that he thought the Veep’s words would tend to overly alarm people.

(Of course, Rep. Sestak had planned to run against Arlen Specter for the Senate seat in Pennsylvania, and Specter’s party switch puts an end to those plans. But he’ll have that opportunity soon enough, and he doesn’t strike me — ever — as the petty type. I think he has a point about Joe, per usual, saying too much.)

Thanks to all who responded to my piece regarding the administration response to this pandemic of influenza. As I go through the news sources today, there really isn’t much exciting unless one examines the response of the locals. What I am seeing is an admirable effort to educate the public in the lay press and an immediate and rather thorough communication to the physician community regarding this illness. This includes methods of identifying suspicious cases, actions to take in response to identification of suspicious cases, and an effort to collect blood to serologically track this disease.

The ‘alarm’ I was talking about has been sounded. This illness must be approached with more than concern; markedly heightened awareness bordering on alarm would be a more effective attitude.

For instance, in Nebraska, the Dept. of Health has e-mailed all physicians with reminders of identifying features of patients who may suffer this illness and recommendations regarding the handling of these persons. This includes the immediate masking of persons with suspicious symptoms, masking of health care delivery personel, isolation of the patient, hand washing, and collection of appropriate blood samples. The news media has published very nice explanations of the varying symptoms of influenza-like illnesses so that the public knows what to expect and how to respond. I am impressed with the local responses.

I am also impressed that I heard nothing stupid from the government today. Did they read my criticism previously published? I’m sorry…sometimes I imagine stuff. Hopefully, they realized that the CDC efforts and the local efforts were more appropriate than our President’s previous unintelligent responses.

In answer to those respondants who drew comparisons of past ‘epidemics’ and scares. Viruses are an enteresting group of biologic molecules; there is even debate as to whether they constitute a life-form. Most scientists do consider them ‘life’ since they replicate, but they, themselves don’t have a specific metabolic machinery. They are extraordinarily efficient parasites….that is, they replicate only in biologic cells for the most part. The scary part is that they can adapt. They can mutate as all DNA and RNA material may and some of those mutations may be more resistant to anti-viral drugs, more infectious than their forebears, or just plain more destructive to the cells they infect. As a rule, viruses either destroy or severely damage the cells they infect and subsequently multiply within; and they multiply by using that cell to make millions of copies of themselves. That is, until our immune system figures out there is a foreign invader and produces enough antibody to neutralize the viral particles rendering them non-infective. One of the reasons HIV is so resistant to treatment is that it infects the very cells that direct effective immune responses against foreign organisms including viruses.

One of the largest dangers in viral infections…and the one which sparks the interest of virologists with this one…is that ability of the virus to morph into a form that is different than previously experienced. Influenza does this on a regular basis, year by year. This is the frightening fact: what if the virus morphed into a really virulent form once again…and is this current pandemic indicative of that. At this time, I don’t think there is an answer to this. Time will tell. But, this is the cause for heightened concern bordering on ‘alarm’. This particular virus has popped up pretty fast simultaneously in a number of spots world-wide and has appeared to manifest enhanced virulence and a poorer outcome than past epidemics. Usually, the mortality associated with influenza is due to the secondary infections that develop because of the damage to the respiratory system, the debilitation of a more prolonged illness, or acute cardiac events as a result of the stress of the illness in those at risk . Once the score is recorded in this pandemic we will know far more about this particular virus.

My point is simply that when dealing with a suddenly more virulent viral infection, it is inappropriate to panic, but it is also completely irresponsible to repress markedly heightened diligence. People should be informed to be alert, observant, and worried. Not paralyzingly worried, but worried enough that common-sense measures become more important; hand-washing, not ignoring febrile upper respiratory illnesses, reporting these illnesses to their physicians, and segregation of ill persons from the populace until they begin to recover. In addition, those who are suggesting travel to Mexico (for instance) is ill-advised, are absolutely worth heeding. This appears to be an area heavily affected and to travel to that area at this time seems foolhardy.

Hopefully our administration will continue to let the experts and the local health officials continue to put forth what seems to have been an effective strategy. Politics has no place in this arena….none, whatsoever. I’m holding my breath; the track record of politicians in affairs they have no business interfering in is dismal. I hope this post answered some of the questions in the queries of the prior article. By the way, one of the best educational sources regarding this subject in general is Scientific American magazine which can be accessed on the internet (Sciam.com).

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Dr. Sears, a cardiologist, is Larry Johnson’s brother-in-law.