If Swine Flu Is a Test, America Is Failing

States' herky-jerky responses show problems with system

By John Johnson, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 10, 2009 9:57 AM CDT

(Newser) – Take a good look at how states are dispensing swine flu shots—if they're dispensing them at all yet—and there's no escaping one conclusion: What a mess. Despite federal guidelines, each state seems to have its own ideas on who should get them first, and when—yet another example of how our "patchwork of a public health care system" is poorly serving the nation's needs, writes Dana Milbank.

"This hasn't mattered much, because the pandemic flu strain, mercifully, has proven to be relatively mild so far," writes Milbank in the Washington Post. "So we can consider this a drill; had this been an actual pandemic, or a biological terrorism attack, we'd all be in deep trouble." What to do? Congress can start with an idea from Henry Waxman to deny states federal money on public health unless they meet minimum standards of competence. It would set up an national accreditation board to enforce them.

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

A boy in Annaapolis, Md., receives a shot of a trial vaccine in this August file photo. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

A flu shot is prepared. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Belinda Patterson, left, looks the other way as she receives a flu shot in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

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The federal government has been more reluctant than it ought to be in ensuring some kind of consistency. - Jeffrey Levi, director of the
Trust for America's Health

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 9 comments

cognitivefilter

Oct 13, 2009 5:12 AM CDT

dont take the vaccine anyway.

fiestygirl

Oct 11, 2009 12:58 PM CDT

My uncle was one of those back in the mid 70's who suffered a paralyzing disability after receiving the swine flu vaccine. He spent the rest of his life in a wheel chair trapped in his body until he died in 1992. NO THANKS to the vaccine. I and my child will take our chances with the virus. I don't trust the CDC nor do I trust the other officials promoting this new "pandemic." I watched a once vital, healthy man be reduced to a wheel chair bound shadow of his former self and it still makes me sick.

Derni

Oct 10, 2009 10:04 AM CDT

Just remember: bacteria and viruses have always mutatued and changed so quickly that we-the humans-are always a few steps behind. But we still need to fight

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If Swine Flu Is a Test, America Is Failing