Kerry Blames Bush For Flu Vaccine Shortage

Kerry Blames Bush for Flu Vaccine Shortage
Drudge and wire stories ^ | October 16, 2004 | Howard Kurtz

Kerry has a new ad that blames President Bush for shortage of flu vaccine. He is also blaming Bush for a frivolous draft bill introduced by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)and voted down by all Republicans and almost all Democrats two weeks ago. Next, Kerry will blame Bush for magma flows on Mount Saint Helens, tremblors in Taiwan, a cold snap in Iowa, sun spots, and early frost on the pumpkin. According to Kerry, the sky is falling. He voted to punch the sky as a last resort but he never thought Bush would actually make the sky fall. Its ok for the sky to fall on our neighbors and let them suffer, but that dopey Bush never should have tackled the whole sky all by himself without the permission of French officials who need their palms greased. If you vote for Kerry, he will make the sky fall more slowly until we get the French, Germans, Chinese, and Kofi Annan to help us hold up the sky by bribing them with all the oil vouchers they need to live a great life. Kerry knows there really is a coalition of the bribed and coerced, and Saddam put it together.

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Hillary's Flu Vaccine Crisis
Newspapers are awash this week with headlines warning that the U.S. is running out of flu vaccine, just as the crisis reaches near-epidemic levels, with 11 children dead so far.

But as top radio talker Rush Limbaugh noted this week, the press isn't explaining how the most sophisticated health care system in the world was caught short by the flu crisis.

Perhaps reporters ought to ask New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, since one of the few health care reforms she managed to inflict on the nation during her co-presidency has now backfired by driving most of America's flu vaccine producers out of business.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal this week, "The reason for today's shortage - as well as seven previous preventive vaccine shortages since 2000 - is that there are just five vaccine makers.

"This lack of suppliers is partly thanks to Hillary Clinton, who as first lady turned government into the majority buyer of vaccines and pushed prices so low as to make business unsustainable."

Last summer the Journal noted that the problem goes back to 1993, when Mrs. Clinton's "Vaccines for Children Program" was first implemented.

Hillary's vaccine crusade was being pushed by her Children's Defense Fund mentor Marian Wright Edelman - even though U.S. child vaccination rates at the time were considered relatively high by medical experts.

But that didn't stop Sen. Clinton and her "reformers." She pressured Congress to back the disastrous plan in a bid to make vaccines more available to poor, uninsured and underinsured children. In the process she turned the government into the major purchaser and distributor of vaccines.

Oops! Unfortunately for the familles of the 11 children killed by the disease so far, things didn't quite work out the way Hillary had planned.

As noted by the Kansas City Star this week, the decision to force vaccine makers to discount their price resulted in "declining financial incentives to develop and produce vaccines."

What's more, the vaccination rate "barely budged" after the Hillary-Edelman brainchild was implemented.

Hillary's "reform" did, however, manage to leave the nation thoroughly unprepared to handle the current flu crisis