Black Belt Pandering Master

9:04 pm, 10/26/04

Black Belt Pandering Master
Governor Blagojevich again demonstrates his superhuman skills in the Art of the Grandstand, this time portraying himself as a heroic warrior-king in the non-existant flu crisis.

Blagojevich said specialists in his administration have identified another 32,000 to 57,000 doses of flu vaccine from overseas sources through the state's new drug-importation network, I-Save Rx. That's in addition to the 30,000 ready-to-ship doses of flu vaccine Blagojevich's office publicized over the weekend.

In a letter Monday, the governor asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve the drug importation. The agency previously condemned his efforts as illegal and unsafe.

"Time is of the essence," Blagojevich said at a Chicago news conference. "The flu season is right around the corner, and the sooner they give their approval, the sooner we can get flu vaccines to the people who need them."

The flu vaccine, priced at $7 a dose, would come from an Aventis Pasteur plant in France through a wholesaler in the United Kingdom.

Blagojevich has asked the federal government to pay for the supply but said he'll find money in the state budget if necessary.

Every year, we hear that the flu virus is unusually powerful, that the flu shot doesn't work this year, or that there aren't enough flu shots. Every year, nothing happens, except for a short-lived mass public hysteria caused entirely by misleading news coverage. The San Francisco Chronicle explains:

This year, an estimated 100 million to 150 million people fall into the high-risk category. The U.S. had expected about 100 million doses of flu vaccine, but manufacturing problems mean flu-shot maker Chiron can't deliver about 48 million doses. The U.S. still has about 58 million doses of flu shots from Aventis and three million doses of the nasal vaccine FluMist.

Last year, only 44 percent of people at highest risk -- those over 65, those with chronic illnesses, pregnant women and infants -- were actually vaccinated. Only 38 percent of health-care workers and 15 percent of the household contacts of high-risk patients got the shots. If flu-shot demand this year were similar to past years, there wouldn't be much of a shortage at all. If high-risk people were vaccinated at the same rate they were last year, the U.S. would need only 42.8 million doses. But news that there will be fewer flu shots than planned has triggered unprecedented demand -- even among people who probably weren't planning to get shots.

In addition to the 61 million doses of vaccine now available, the existing supply of prescription antiviral medicines is enough to treat about 40 million people -- bringing the total number of people protected by flu shots or antiviral drugs to about 100 million. "That's as much or more protection than we were ever going to have from the vaccine," Dr. Poland notes.

Despite the panic among consumers, health officials say that, so far, we appear to be headed for a mild flu season. The strain that is circulating is similar to last year's flu. That means if you got a flu shot last year or if you got the flu last year, it's likely that you have some carryover immunity that may give you added protection this flu season.

People at high risk for complications should nonetheless keep trying to find a flu shot. But if you can't, it's a good idea to ask your doctor for a pneumococcal vaccine if you haven't had one recently. The vaccine can lower your risk for pneumonia, one of the most serious complications from flu.

I watched a medical expert trying to explain this point, pneumonia, on CNN the other day, being cut off by an anchor who clearly didn't want to hear it.

"Many of the vulnerable people killed by influenza actually die of pneumonia, so you can get a pneumonia vaccination and..."

"That will do the same thing as a flu shot?"

"No, what it will do is..."

"No, it won't prevent the flu. OK, thank you."

The media at large doesn't grasp the purpose behind vaccinations or the science behind flu epidemics, nor do they desire to. That would spoil their hysterical coverage. Too many healthy people get flu vaccinations entirely because they find the flu inconvenient and consider inconvenience to be a serious emergency, and they often assume everybody else does, too.

"My God! SICK!? I can't get SICK! The flu could kill me, the news said so!"

Even CNN is finally dealing with the reality today, but this assinine hysteria over a crisis that doesn't exist has already shown up in the freakin' Presidential debates, and Blago is cashing in. It's another press kit he can slap his name all over and hold up as an "achievement" if he actually tries to pull his Democratic Presidential run in 2008. When you invented the fake crisis, it's easy to fake saving the world by solving it.

Try to focus on running the damn state, OK, Rod?