Cheney: Flu Shot Mess Due to Everything But GOP

Cheney says the shortfall in flu shot vaccine is due to lawsuits over flu vaccine, low profits by drug companies and the fact that people don't want flu shots. Well, my-my! I didn’t realize that all those seniors and pregnant women lining up to get their flu shots didn’t actually want them and were going to turn around and sue the manufacturers after they received them. And it hadn’t occured to me, Mr. Cheney, that low profits on the manufacture of medically necessary drugs would curtail their production. But now that it’s been brought to my attention, let me ask you, what is the Bush administration doing to stop the rampant greed and price-gouging in pharmaceutical companies? Other than promoting legislation that encourages rampant greed and price-gouging in pharmaceutical companies. As has been made clear during the last four years of BushMen rule, Vice President Dick Cheney is talking out his ass again. MSNBC is carrying an AP wire story in which a doctor asks why this flu vaccine shortage is happening again. “It’s not the first year we have had a problem with supply,” Dr. Adam Aponte, medical director for North General Diagnostic and Treatment Center in New York says. “Why is it we are dealing with this problem over and over again? Now we are stuck in the middle of flu season with a shortage of supply and that’s not a good position to be in.”   In January of 2001, the American Medical News carried an article in which the shortfall of flu vaccine for 2001 was discussed. “There were other challenges, too,” the story stated. ”Two of the three domestic vaccine producers experienced manufacturing problems that added to the setback and triggered a domino effect of problems throughout the supply chain.” In August of 2004 the Bush Administration was warned that there were problems at the Liverpool England Chiron plant with the manufacture of flu vaccine. An article in the Washington Post on October 8th reported that the British officials said there had been regular communication with American public health officials at the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since Aug. 26, when Chiron announced it would delay releasing supplies of the vaccine because about 4 million doses had been tainted. A recurring theme of the BushMen is, It’s not our fault. Okay, then...the debacle in Iraq happened on your watch, the soaring national debt happened on your watch, the ridiculous and incomprehensible Medicare Drug Plan happened on your watch, pandering to pharmaceutical companies and HMO’s happened on your watch, the shortfall on flu vaccine after you’d been warned it was going to occur happened on your watch. So why isn’t it your fault? You were so charmed with your virtual reality that you forgot to check in with the real world? You were so engaged in denying the problems you’d made that you didn’t have time to fix the problems you made? All your energies were used up by intimidating the press and tv media and you had nothing left to deal with the global mess you had caused? Is that why nothing is your fault? As Jon Stewart of The Daily Show said to Tucker Carlson on Crossfire, YOU’RE HURTING AMERICA, STOP IT!!!!! BushMen, you’re hurting America. Stop it!