LWW
10-15-2007, 05:01 PM
From Hillarys website: (http://clinton.senate.gov/news/statements/details.cfm?id=248090)
Statement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in Reaction to President Bush’s Pandemic Flu Plan:
"The sad fact is that our nation is simply not prepared to handle a major flu outbreak, let alone a pandemic. Since 2000, we have experienced three shortages of seasonal influenza vaccine. While it is welcome news that the Administration is focused on vaccine research and stockpiling in the event of a pandemic flu, the question is – how will the Administration handle distribution and communications with a system that has failed to meet seasonal flu vaccine demands in three out of the last five years?
The President's plan calls for us to develop credible distribution mechanisms and prioritize countermeasure allocation for at-risk populations. We already prioritize allocation for seasonal flu vaccine, and yet we're still not able to get it to all the seniors who need it. We must establish a tracking system, like the one called for in the Influenza Vaccine Security Act I introduced earlier this year with Senator Pat Roberts, that would allow the federal government, working with state and local health departments, to track vaccine from the factory to the clinic so all Americans know where local vaccine supplies are, particularly when a pandemic hits.
Last fall’s flu vaccine shortage should have been a wake up call to the problem we will have on our hands when a pandemic strikes if we fail to address this critical public health challenge. Confusion and even panic broke out in some communities with people scrambling to get vaccines, while supplies went unused and unaccounted for in other areas. We can only assume that similar confusion and panic will occur in the event of a pandemic flu if this Administration fails to take steps to fix our domestic public health delivery and communications system now. The fact is that this Administration has not supported necessary funding to repair our broken public health infrastructure, to enable our state and local health departments to not only combat the threat of pandemic influenza, but the real-life conditions which they face every day. They need to step up to the plate and start supporting critical needs now.
One positive step forward would be for the Administration to support our legislation to ensure that fundamental fixes are made to our vaccine delivery system so we are able to adequately handle seasonal flu vaccine needs, as well as a flu pandemic. If we are to be prepared for the worst, we need to take first things first. We need a system that works. This Administration needs to understand that in the case of the flu, an ounce of prevention is truly worth a pound of cure."
From where the air is thicker: (http://www.americanthinker.com/comments.php?comments_id=3548)
Hillary attacks - and ignores her own culpability
Hillary Clinton responded to President Bush’s plans to prepare for a possible avian fluy crisis by attacking the shortages of vaccines that have occurred under his Administration and, of course, by criticizing* Bush for tardiness in taking the steps he has taken so far. Left unsaid by Hillary was her key role a few years ago in ensuring that America would develop a vaccine crisis.
The Wall Street Journal*highlighted ($link) “Hillary’s Vaccine Shortage” years ago. Her Vaccines for Children program, a pet project undertaken while she was the First Lady, has been especially destructive. That program put the Federal Government in the role of buyer for a huge percentage of all private vaccines, and it has used its monopsony clout to drive prices down to unprofitable levels for vaccine manafacturers.Thirty years ago, there were 25 companies producing vaccines for the US market. Now only 5 remain, and for some critical vaccines only one manafcaturer has been left standing after suffering the depredations from Hillary’s plan. The National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine, a non-partisan group, directly blamed Hillary Clinton years ago for the vaccine crisis.**Tort lawyers, a prime consitutency and money source for the Democratic Party, have also taken their “fair share” from drug companies by repeatedly attacking drug companies for purportedly flawed vaccines. Tort lawyers, with a handy assist by the “crusading” (and wrong) Robert Kennedy, Junior, have also used the fictitous crisis regarding the harmless vaccine additive thimerosal to browbeat vaccine makers.*Ed Lasky** 11 02 05
LWW
Statement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in Reaction to President Bush’s Pandemic Flu Plan:
"The sad fact is that our nation is simply not prepared to handle a major flu outbreak, let alone a pandemic. Since 2000, we have experienced three shortages of seasonal influenza vaccine. While it is welcome news that the Administration is focused on vaccine research and stockpiling in the event of a pandemic flu, the question is – how will the Administration handle distribution and communications with a system that has failed to meet seasonal flu vaccine demands in three out of the last five years?
The President's plan calls for us to develop credible distribution mechanisms and prioritize countermeasure allocation for at-risk populations. We already prioritize allocation for seasonal flu vaccine, and yet we're still not able to get it to all the seniors who need it. We must establish a tracking system, like the one called for in the Influenza Vaccine Security Act I introduced earlier this year with Senator Pat Roberts, that would allow the federal government, working with state and local health departments, to track vaccine from the factory to the clinic so all Americans know where local vaccine supplies are, particularly when a pandemic hits.
Last fall’s flu vaccine shortage should have been a wake up call to the problem we will have on our hands when a pandemic strikes if we fail to address this critical public health challenge. Confusion and even panic broke out in some communities with people scrambling to get vaccines, while supplies went unused and unaccounted for in other areas. We can only assume that similar confusion and panic will occur in the event of a pandemic flu if this Administration fails to take steps to fix our domestic public health delivery and communications system now. The fact is that this Administration has not supported necessary funding to repair our broken public health infrastructure, to enable our state and local health departments to not only combat the threat of pandemic influenza, but the real-life conditions which they face every day. They need to step up to the plate and start supporting critical needs now.
One positive step forward would be for the Administration to support our legislation to ensure that fundamental fixes are made to our vaccine delivery system so we are able to adequately handle seasonal flu vaccine needs, as well as a flu pandemic. If we are to be prepared for the worst, we need to take first things first. We need a system that works. This Administration needs to understand that in the case of the flu, an ounce of prevention is truly worth a pound of cure."
From where the air is thicker: (http://www.americanthinker.com/comments.php?comments_id=3548)
Hillary attacks - and ignores her own culpability
Hillary Clinton responded to President Bush’s plans to prepare for a possible avian fluy crisis by attacking the shortages of vaccines that have occurred under his Administration and, of course, by criticizing* Bush for tardiness in taking the steps he has taken so far. Left unsaid by Hillary was her key role a few years ago in ensuring that America would develop a vaccine crisis.
The Wall Street Journal*highlighted ($link) “Hillary’s Vaccine Shortage” years ago. Her Vaccines for Children program, a pet project undertaken while she was the First Lady, has been especially destructive. That program put the Federal Government in the role of buyer for a huge percentage of all private vaccines, and it has used its monopsony clout to drive prices down to unprofitable levels for vaccine manafacturers.Thirty years ago, there were 25 companies producing vaccines for the US market. Now only 5 remain, and for some critical vaccines only one manafcaturer has been left standing after suffering the depredations from Hillary’s plan. The National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine, a non-partisan group, directly blamed Hillary Clinton years ago for the vaccine crisis.**Tort lawyers, a prime consitutency and money source for the Democratic Party, have also taken their “fair share” from drug companies by repeatedly attacking drug companies for purportedly flawed vaccines. Tort lawyers, with a handy assist by the “crusading” (and wrong) Robert Kennedy, Junior, have also used the fictitous crisis regarding the harmless vaccine additive thimerosal to browbeat vaccine makers.*Ed Lasky** 11 02 05
LWW