I created this blog as an outlet to express my frustrations over the H1N1 vaccination.
This morning, I found out that my children's pediatrician had FINALLY received the H1N1 vaccination. I tried to call my Pediatrician over and over this morning and received nothing but a busy message. When I finally did get in touch with someone by the grace of God, they informed me that they were already out. I was shocked! In the two hours from the time that they posted the vaccine availability, they informed me that they had run out. I didn't think I was that behind the 8 ball. I thought in calling the day of the announcement to make the appointment, I was doing my due diligence. I was starting to feel a wave of Mommy-guilt wash over me, until they informed me that they had only received 100 doses.
100 doses people?! Are you kidding me!?! For the entire South County Community?!?
Something is wrong with this. I keep being told that in November, they'll get another shipment, call then. However, it is never indicated exactly WHEN in November. They are extremely vague in their information. Which makes me believe that they're trying to prevent want massive droves of people assaulting their offices on the day that it's specifically available, by withholding information. They want people to be behind the 8 ball so they can contain the chaos.
But these are people's lives, children's lives, we're talking about. Who gives a damn about the number of phone calls your office gets on any given day?! Make the vaccination available and accessible to the people by providing specific information.
I understand that there isn't enough to go around. This is yet another grave concern for me. Why didn't the Powers That Be make sure that when the Swine Flu threat became imminent (say in oh, August), they did everything in their power to make sure it's manufacture was ramped up?
Sure Constituents in Washington can argue all they want about the fact that we have a shortage. Arguing doesn't produce the vaccine that we need. By November, or whenever they're quoting a new doseage will be available, thousands if not millions of Americans will already be sick or exposed to the virus!
This seems like complete insanity to me! To compound the stress, my daughter has asthma, which makes her very high risk. However, there's no vaccine around to speak of. I wish I could just be as cavalier as some of these parents and rationalize that H1N1 is just like any other virus and can be confronted by a healthy immune system. But I'm not willing to take a gamble on my daughter's health because the Bureaucrats in Washington can't get it together. Just like Bush's cronies were incapable of handling Katrina in an appropriate manner, I'm seeing the same type of behavior in this situation. When the Government fails, people die! I don't want to sound hysterical, but look at Katrina as an example of this fact.
A huge responsibility of Government is to protect the people, and when we have a vaccine that can do just that, it's unconscionable for people to needlessly die because Government can't organize itself enough to be efficient.
