Why Healthcare Reform Could Fail, or Please, don't stand next to me in the checkout line!

You are lying in a critical care bed in upstate New York.  A nurse approaches.  Has she washed her hands?  Maybe.  Has she had an H1N1 flu shot.  No!  How safe are you feeling?  If I were still living in NYC, this would be my newest concern.  Back in NYC, a large number of healthcare workers are refusing these shots because required to do so.  Oh, it would be okay if they could be in charge of the decision?

"We don't feel the government should have the right to force us to put any substance -- whether or not the government feels it's safe -- into our body," said Laura Ally, a critical-care nurse at St. Peter's Hospital in Albany. New York is the first state to mandate flu shots for healthcare workers.  According to this news report, a group of them will rally for their questionable cause  at the state capitol.  Makes me wonder how long before the U.S., led by folks such as these, will rid itself of a central government.

Ever since our daughter and son-in-law had their first child in Portland, Oregon, one fact worried me more than others.   Many parents here are opposed to vaccination for their children...read this scary story from last Fall.   The elementary school our 7 year old  attends has one of the highest rates of children whose families have opted out of innoculations for their kids.  Wondering if these same folks as as committed to the idea of reproductive choice for women as they are to making my grandchildren's surroundings unsafe.

We had a new sort of experience in getting our own yearly flu shots this weekend.  Three pharmacies in town had advertised FREE shots.  We'd missed the September dates at Wahlgreen's (where it was not clear whether we'd have to pay $25) and Rite-Aid.  At Safeway, we got an appointment for the next day, used Medicare.  If we had any doubts before, we now know that reform of the healthcare system could fail because the money does not follow our having a more rational system. And, reason two, there are a remarkable number of uneducated people standing in the checkout line. Powerful combo.

Mandatory-Healthcare-Factoid:  "Pilgrims who travel to Mecca this Fall Get Oral Vaccine," whether they like it or not,  as reported in Tuesday, September 29, "Science" section of the New York Times.  [sorry, could not find link]

Comments

[Duffy]

It was delightful to see you at OFFF. I'm not a slow knitter and you probably saw I'm not a slow spinner. I fit it in wherever I can.

Oregon is known for its high numbers of libertarians. When you're out in hell-and-gone you tend to get single-minded about things. It gets weird at times in the Republican party because the libertarians have major beefs with the social conservatives, which makes those of us of a more liberal bent happy.

[Diane L.]

On principal,I agree with your
statement that healthcare workers should get vaccines to protect the patients with whom they work. However, this H1N1 vaccine has some controversy surrounding the safety of it. And think many people are beginning to do their own research about it. It being offered to the public does not mean that it's safe, esp. if you look at the criteria for it's release to be administered to the public.

[m.e.]

i walked past safeway tonight and saw a "free flu shots" sign. what gets me are the people who walk around coughing and sneezing but won't staswy home cuz they need to work.

good luck out there. lots of looney tea partiers in the west.

did you see the video of that wonderful democratic congressman on huffingtonpost.com? another one was on dailykos.com

it's going to be 49 degrees tonight!!

xo, m.e.

[Hattie]

Maddening, innit? It feels as if wwe are going backwards.

[Anne Gibert]

You got it right when you said you wonder whether they would be okay with the program if they were in charge. That's what I find is true of so-called libertarians. It isn't that they want no rules, they just want their rules. Nobody should tell them what to do, but they should dictate to the rest of us.

[janinsanfran]

My partner's brother was one of those anti-vaccine parents. His son came down with whooping cough! No kid and no community should have to have whooping cough.

[Kay]

Ay ay ay don't get me started on the anti-vaccine people. So misanthropic it makes me sick (and could do so literally). Don't live in a community (and accept its benefits) if you feel that way. "Controversy" about "safety" is always there, or can be created. Basically, in a society as populated as ours, somebody has to decide for us. I choose scientists! And the government! We have to hold them accountable, but we don't have the right to say we know better and thereby put our community at risk of an epidemic. This concept is as old as cave dwellers.

I feel this way even though my (once) baby boy was given a vaccine for roto virus that was withdrawn for safety reasons before he could get his booster shot. Was I mad? Yes. Did I get him his other vaccines? Yes. He travels on the subway in a city of 8 million.

But I didn't come here to rant (the ranting was a bonus): I really just want to tell you that I went to Costco up in Yonkers today, and they had a sign up saying that they had flu shots for $20. Which for the non-Medicare population is a pretty good deal. You can also get a half-pound hot dog for $1.50, which is probably not as good of an idea!

Love to you and Ron!
Kay

[joared]

I don't see this as a simple black white issue. I'm mandated to take TB tests as a health care worker, but that's quite a different matter. I certainly think there are serious issues here.

I must tell you the healthcare workers I know who are hesitating to take the H1N1 shot are doing so because they're concerned pharmaceutical companies and govt. has not done adequate testing to insure the shot's safety, not just because they don't want to be forced to do so. I do, however, believe there is something to be said for that position though, too. Perhaps if there wasn't such a track record of the public more and more being used as guinea pigs by pharmaceutical companies and FDA rather than thorough testing before hand this attitude might not be so prevalent. That coupled with a tendency for those companies/govt. to minimize some drugs effects by saying, "Only this many people(some percentage) have these sometimes serious side effects" which they skim over while highly promoting the drug, then maybe less questioning would occur. If I'm one of that minority suffering the adverse effects, I may have a serious problem.

When I was regularly working I was strongly pressed by the company for which I worked to take the first hepatitis shots (a series) when they came out. For reasons I won't go into here, I and many others in my company declined to do so. Some years later when I was working in an acute hospital the same issue came up, and again numerous of us chose to not take the hepatitis shots.

I didn't take the regular flu shot for years and rarely if ever even had a cold, much less the flu. When I went into the hospital work and was seeing more elders in other settings, coupled with the onset of my husband's impaired immune system and my concluding I was getting older, maybe more vulnerable, I began taking the flu shots.

I will take the flu shot this year, in fact, this week, free at my local senior health fair. I haven't decided yet about the H1N1 and wonder if they've concluded, for sure, yet that only one of those shots will be needed, instead of the two -- a topic on which they've been waffling. I know of numerous parents, including some who work in medical labs, who are undecided about whether or not to have their young adult/teenage children take the H1N1 shot.

I believe I'm supposed to wait approx. 2 weeks after taking my regular flu shot before taking the H1N1. Time is drawing close when those of us who are undecided will have to make a decision. Maybe there will be circumstances that will reassure all who are hesitant.

Hope all is going well with your settling into Portland.

[joared]

FWIW my Va. dtr, early forties, and granddtr,14, have the swine flu. The vaccine was not yet available in their community though that flu was present in their metropolitan community schools even before the start of the school year. Granddtr presumably had the old-fashioned stomach flu a week or so before contracting this one, probably at school. Hope this means they'll now have immunity to future exposures as think this will be a long school year with continued cases throughout.

I had a 40-50 yr old GP tell me he's not taking the swine flu vaccine and that I didn't need to either. I reminded him I work in health care, though part time, and he said then that I should take it. (Probably won't be available here until late Nov., or so.) Dumb me, after we finished our conversation it suddenly occurred to me that he works in health care, too, and sees lots of older people, so what kind of logic is he following?

[naomi]

Joann: So sorry about H1N1 visiting your family and that they will not suffer too long. And I'm concerned for you too. Yesterday a child in our granddaughter's nursery school class got it so we were glad that our child got the H1N1 shot last week.

How will the shot-resisters respond as more cases surround them? The personal definitely political in this. Hoping you stay well.

[Delores Liesner]

I don't understand why so many think people should allow substances to be injected into them just because they are free. Why wouldn't rational people reject a vaccination that the producers themselves will not take? I wondered why. Maybe they read the CDC website which lists the ingredients including formaldehyde, mercury and animal cancer cells.