For the second time this year we are being inundated with stories about the swine flu, er, H1N1 flu. As a physician I am getting what seems like multiple emails a day about it. President Obama even deemed it a national emergency. This was designed to give hospitals the flexibility to move patients to satellite facilities if they are overwhelmed. For example, they can turn a Walmart into Swinemart. The USA Today has reported how this hysteria has pushed some hospitals to the limit, inundating their ERs with scared parents and kids. The number of deaths from this virus is not nearly as high as from the regular flu but that is not the issue. The issue is that it hits and can kill healthy kids. And that scares the crap out of people. So why aren't more people being vaccinated? Well, for one, many parents are not sold on the idea. That is starting to change, however, as the temperature gets colder and we move into the regular flu season. The second reason is that we are about 24 million doses short of the vaccine! I haven't even been able to get mine yet and I am on the front line seeing patients (also read as vector). Call me crazy but hasn't the government known this was coming? I am blaming them and the vaccine makers for this mistake. You knew it was coming and you knew we needed the vaccines and yet all you are doing is rationing them and claim a national emergency. Who was in charge of this? FEMA? I
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