Flu vaccine shortage! Speak up now or you may be the one left out

Mike Esposito The United States Department of Health and Human services recently released its plan describing how it will distribute a flu vaccine if, or when, a flu pandemic occurs in this country. The plan divides the population into four tiers based on different factors. The first tier individuals will receive the vaccine before anyone else. They are the health care workers, first responders and people who are vital to keeping society functioning. These later can be described as the workers who provide us with water, electricity, security, and food. The second tier is composed mainly of the elderly, the very young, non-healthy adults and others deemed critical to the infrastructure. The bottom of the tiered system includes everyone else. Better hope you have a good job if you are not ill. The people who are working their way into the economic system, which include many poor and minority workers, will be left in a lurch. In this system, it would not be wise to be a homemaker.

The complete tier can be viewed on the Health and Human services website. The information is being released so that the average American can give the government their opinion on the planned program. We are given until mid-December to email them our thoughts. How Americans respond to the information is open to debate. Most feel that giving the vaccine to the people in first tier of the system is appropriate. These are the people who care for the sick and who are going to be exposed to the disease. They are also the people who will administer the flu vaccines. If the health care providers cannot care for the sick then the whole system breaks down.

The debate will rage at tiers below the first level. The ethical debate pits the sick against the healthy, the old against the young, the taxpayer versus the poor and the ‘more important’ versus the ‘less important’ individual. The argument as to why someone should or should not get the flu vaccine depends on your perspective. Why should someone else get a better chance at survival? Doesn’t the United States call for equal protection and equal rights? Does that include survival? Should we take care of the young and strong first, for they are the people who are building and will build our society. Should we use the limited doses we have on the sick and infirm for they are more likely to die from the ravages of the flu? And what happens if the flu is more deadly than initially anticipated? What happens if a pandemic flu such as bird flu occurs which could cause more than half the people infected to perish? Do we scrap the plan and go to the survival or the fittest?

There are many ethical questions that need to be answered. The questions seem theoretical now but need to be answered. The time to decide is before there is a crisis. The ethicists, the scientists and politicians have given us the opportunity to be heard. Everyone needs to get involved so when the time comes we are making the decisions, which the majority desired. It may be the most important email you ever sent. It may save your life or the life of a loved one. Get involved. Email them at Panfluvaccine@hhs.gov

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